The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) have called for regulation of drug prices after they found huge prices differences for family planning commodities across mission and private health facilities.
The demand was made as result of the annual survey on access to sexual reproductive health commodities in health facilities were being released yesterday.
Dennis Kibira, the Coordinator of Medicines Transparency Alliance revealed that while conducting the survey they found huge price disparities for contraceptives giving an example of implants where at some facilities the commodity would go for as low as Shs 3000 to be inserted and yet at another facility the same device of the same brand is at Shs 20,000.
“Health is a public good whose pricing shouldn’t be left to the forces of demand and supply. We kept wondering that if it can cost so little why should it cost so much somewhere else,” said Kibira.
The survey that was carried out across 145 facilities including 55 public health facilities, 43 mission or private not for profit hospitals and 47 private health facilities was meant to establish availability and access to key commodities including contraceptives, maternal health drugs like misoprostol and oxytocin that prevent bleeding after child birth, drugs – magnesium sulphate injection and calcium gluconate that curb high blood pressure in pregnancy in addition to essential drugs for child health – zinc ORS co-pack for diarrhea and chlorhexidine for cord care.
Overall, the survey results show availability of sexual reproductive health commodities across all facilities stands at 36% in 2019, accounting for a reduction from 2018 which was 37% and 39% in 2017. Private health sector facilities had the lowest availability of these commodities at 31%, 38% availability was noted in government facilities and 40% for private not for profit hospitals.
Reacting to the findings of the survey, Mbwatekamwa Gaffa, a member of the Health Committee in parliament said he has already experienced over pricing of drugs that have been subsidized as he established Coartem, a malaria drug which is supposed to be accessed at a cheaper price in some facilities goes for Shs 8000 yet the highest it should go for under the government – private green leaf arrangement, it was set not to cost higher than Shs 2000. For him, government should come up with an arrangement for checks and balances to monitor prices for key commodities that people should easily access.
On her part, Robina Kaitiritimba, the Executive Director of Uganda Health Consumers’ Organisation said even as the report shows stock outs were at 16% and there has been a drop in the number of days for facilities to receive new stocks from 19 days in 2017 to 3 days now. She also said health facilities are working with inadequate budgets whereby for instance for Health Center IIs, while the government allocates them Shs 11 billion, their need has been quantified by the National Medical Stores to be at Shs 28 billion.
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