About four districts are in red as they have exhausted their drug budget for the 2023/24 financial year, just six months into the year.
The four are Mulanje, Neno, Lilongwe and Kasungu.
Ministry of Health Officials disclosed this at Parliament Building Thursday, when they appeared before the Joint Committee on Health and Government Assurances of Parliament.
Principal Secretary for Health Responsible for Administration Beston Chisamile told the lawmakers that the ministry now seeks an additional K15 billion for the drug budget, out of which K9 billion is for district hospitals and K6 billion for central hospitals.
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He said the funds would be enough to take the healthcare service facilities up to March next year.
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Chisamile said when budget policy statements are being presented to Parliament, what is approved is normally on the lower side, resulting in drug stockout.
“The main issue is that when the budgets are being formulated, what is ideal; that is, what is presented and what is finally approved [differs]. From the presentation, we saw that there was a funding gap of about K20 billion and that now translates to these other issues on the ground,” Chisamile said.
However, Health Committee of Parliament Chairperson Matthews Ngwale said there are more districts that have exhausted their drug budgets than the four identified.
“This issue of drug budgets running out has been there for years. We are not surprised that that’s the case. We went to Nkhotakota Thursday, when we observed the same. The hospital has run out of drugs.
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“The claim that there are only four districts [affected] is not true. That information is outdated . There are a lot more hospitals that have run out of drugs at the moment,” Ngwale said.
Meanwhile, quality health advocate Maziko Matemba has described the situation as unfortunate.
“The Ministry of Local Government and the Ministry of Health need to address this as a matter of urgency and priority,” Matemba said.
In a related development, The Daily Times has learned that some police stations have gone six months without getting funding.
During a meeting with officials, Commissioner of Police responsible for the Eastern Region Violet Magwaya asked Inspector General of Police Merlyne Yolamu to intervene in the issue of funding, saying the problem is affecting some police stations in the region.
“Some stations have stayed since April without receiving funding from the government, which has affected their operations,” Magwaya said.
On her part, Yolamu acknowledged that there were some funding hiccups but was quick to say the government provided the funds to the Treasury but processes at the Treasury were responsible for the delays.
“However, I should be quick to mention here that the government gave us the money. The payment systems at the Treasury are the ones that are frustrating us. But all the stations that have not been receiving their money will get it with arrears— but it’s their money,” Yolamu said.
