Tanzania’s Minister of health Ummy Mwalimu has given a five-month ultimatum to owners of pharmacies constructed within 500 meters from public hospitals to relocate their facilities until June 30th, this year in an effort to curb theft of government drugs.
She made the declaration on Monday during her visit to the Muhimbili National Hospital Dar es Salaam while commenting that the lack of medicines in pharmacies and its scarcity in hospitals is strange and not acceptable.
“I established this law before I left the ministry, so now; I am sending this message to all pharmacies that are 500 kilometers within hospitals, we are going to remove them,” – Minister of Health, Ummy Mwalimu
“Privately-owned pharmacies within 500 metres from hospitals must be moved before June 30. The presence of pharmacies close to public health facilities causes people to lose confidence in the government believing that some hospital staff collude with pharmacy operators” she added.
The office of the Chief Pharmacist will from now stop issuing permits to intended operators of pharmacies located less than 500 meters from public hospitals, the minister alerted, signaling that she had also ordered the Medical Stores Department (MSD) to speed up distribution of drugs.
Availability of drugs should reach 90 percent from the current 50 percent within three months, she specifically affirmed, revealing also that the government plans to construct a new state of the art national hospital to boost provision of healthcare services.
The current national hospital was built nearly 70 years ago and is being overwhelmed by cases of patients being referred from district hospitals in Dar es Salaam and upcountry, she said.
