Tharaka Nithi Governor Muthomi Njuki has raised concern over rampant theft of drugs at public hospitals in the county and warned that those found culpable will face the music.
He recently singled out Chuka County Referral Hospital where he said some health workers were sneaking the drugs out using vehicles ferrying dead bodies from the adjacent mortuary and would later sell to nearby chemists.
The workers were also leaving the facility with the stolen drugs through the mortuary gate that is not under strict surveillance as that of the hospital, Njuki said during issuance of a newly acquired ambulance.
Recently, patients seeking services at the facility have been complaining over lack of essential drugs with health workers reportedly referring to buy from nearby chemists.
If the illegal act is not tamed, patients may continue to suffer exploitation by nearby private chemists that sell the drugs at expensive costs.
“The county is losing drugs worth millions to the rogue workers who have been stealing to stock their chemists while our people continue to suffer and those involved should be warned,” Njuki said.
Also, a Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC) Chuka campus student was recently arrested at the hospital gate sneaking out with some drugs and investigations into the matter are ongoing.
More than 400 KMTC students who have been housed at one of the Chuka University buildings frequently visit the facility among others in the county and neighbouring counties for their practicals.
The county boss ordered that the student be barred from accessing the facility and other students visiting the facility for their practicals be frisked whenever leaving the facility so that no drugs are lost.
Surprisingly, some workers were entering the batch numbers for all the delivered drugs in the system but using the manual system while issuing them to patients making it impossible to account how the drugs are used.
“Details for all the drugs from Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA) and other sources must be keyed into the system as well as their distribution for well accounting of the drugs,”
Some nurses and clinical officers, Njuki said, were even prescribing some drugs to themselves that they would ferry to their chemists pointing out a case of an officer who has been carrying insulin in large quantities as was under the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) scheme.
The newly acquired ambulance is expected to slightly reduce the referral cases from the Chuka Hospital to other facilities such as Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi.
Njuki said his government will ensure that all the stalled ambulances purchased by his predecessor Samuel Ragwa will be repaired for vast coverage.
A recent Tharaka Nithi County Assembly Health Committee report on the state of the medical facilities showed that only one ambulance at Muthambi Health Centre in Maara constituency was functional in the entire county and patients’ families were being forced to fuel it in event of referrals.
