A report by Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has reaffirmed audit findings that Jinja Regional Referral Hospital is operating without a pharmacist and the people currently operating the facility have no basic knowledge on how to operate the pharmacy.
Medard Sseggona (Busiro East) who is also Chairperson PAC said, “Audit Inquiries revealed that the personnel working in the private pharmacy currently do not have the requisite technical knowledge to enable smooth operations. There was no evidence to show that these employees received training to equip them with the basic knowledge for running the operations of the pharmacy.
When the top management of Jinja Hospital were asked on the matter, they explained that clearance was obtained from Ministry of Public Service and Health Service Commission to recruit key staff on replacement basis and that among the key posts submitted included a pharmacist who will man private wing pharmacy
However, almost six years after the audit report was published by the Auditor General, the Pharmacist hadn’t been hired, prompting Parliament to issue a six months ultimatum within which Jinja Hospital is required to recruit a pharmacist.
Sseggona remarked, “The committee observed that the pharmacist has, however, not been recruited to date. Lack of technical personnel to dispense drugs puts the patients’ health at risk due to poor management of operations and lack of proper guidance. Record management is also compromised.”
MPs also raised concern on the absence of approved fees structure to guide in charging of patients, with no evidence of fees being made public through notice boards and other strategic locations, an omission, the hospital officials acknowledged to while meeting the Committee and explained that the existing price list was not up-to-date, but Jinja Hospital management had constituted a private wing committee and among the terms of reference for the committee was to review and display the price list.
“The committee observed that lack of an approved fees structure may lead to “under the table” payments which exploits patients. The Accounting Officer should ensure that there is an approved, fees to guide in charging of patients. This should be uniform across all the Government facilities in the country and, should be displayed at the Pharmacy,” remarked Sseggona.
MPs also faulted management of Jinja Hospital for the poor handling of expired medicines, after an inspection of the store by officials from Office of Auditor General revealed that various drugs that had expired during the year had not yet been removed from the shelves as required by standard operating procedures in store management.
However, the hospital managers explained that space where the expired drugs were found by auditors had been designated in store for keeping expired medicines from which they are shifted to pharmacy for quantification and shipment by NMS for disposal.
The explanation was however rejected by Parliament with Sseggona noting, “The committee observed that failure to isolate expired drugs exposes a potential threat to the lives of patients as these expired drugs medicines could be put back on the market by unscrupulous individuals. The committee recommends that management should ensure that expired. medicines are removed from the shelves to eliminate potential threat to the lives of patients.”
Administrators of Jinja Hospital were also ordered by Parliament to recover Shs3,790,460 paid to 2 staff who had either retired, transferred, absconded or died with average delays of 1 month, with MPs arguing that the delayed deletion of staff from payroll facilitates payments for services not rendered to the Hospital, resulted in loss of funds to the Government, thus the need to the overpaid amount from two pensioners on mandatory retirement to be reclaimed within 6months.
Another loophole unearthed on payroll of Jinja Hospital related to Shs1,282,001 deducted from 3 employees past the end date, with the Committee noting that un-authorized loans deductions pose a risk of making deductions from staff that have no loans, which deprives them of their hard-earned funds.
Similar audits on loan management regarded the unrealistic loan end dates for 29 employees ranging from 6 to 10 years and at the time of audit, Shs73,560,513 had been deducted from these employees, a revelation that prompted Parliament to direct Ministry of Public Service to consider reviewing the MoU signed between commercial banks in order to streamline the management of loan deductions.
