The Minister of State for Kampala and Metropolitan Affairs, Hon. Kabuye Kyofatogabye has commended the National Medical Stores (NMS) for setting up a state of the art Headquarters that houses a modern pharmaceutical warehouse in Kajjansi, off Entebbe Road.
The facility, which was commissioned by President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni last year, has a storage capacity of 30,000 pallet warehouse space which is almost four times the current capacity of the former headquarters in Entebbe, a cold room, a call Centre and a day care for kids among amenities.
“Healthwise,I think we can stand out and say we are securing the future,” said Hon. Kyofatogabye who represented the Minister for the Presidency, Hon. Babirye Milly Babalanda during an oversight tour at the new NMS Headquarters.
Hon. Kyofatogabye was in the company of a team from the Office of the President which included: The Head of RDC Secretariat, Maj. Martha Asiimwe, Sr. Grace Akiror-Commissioner In charge of Northern Uganda, Dr. James Tweheyo- Commissioner In charge of Karamoja region ,Mr. Fred Mbagadhi Nkayi-Commissioner In charge of Central Buganda Region, Mr. Fred Bamwine-Commissioner in charge of Kampala Region, Ms. Obedi Gertrude Collines- Commissioner in charge of Eastern Uganda, Dr. Dan Ssekiboobo- Senior Presidential Advisor- Research and Mr. Fred Kamusira- Deputy Director Manifesto Implementation.
The Minister said as Government officials,it is their responsibility to create awareness about government initiatives, explaining that this will entice the public to appreciate what the state has done as far as service delivery is concerned.
“Can you please give us the right information so that we can help you deliver the good work of NMS to the public. I pledge and offer our structure as the Ministry of Presidency; we are able to reach the last mile, we get and deliver information to the grassroot so if you want your information to reach far, work with us,”Mr. Kyofatogabye pledged.
The Minister further advised the management of NMS to start visiting the regions across the country to create awareness about their operations.
” Write to the Presidency so that we can integrate you to use the government media airtime and also give regular briefs to the Presidency updating us about your operations.”
On the other hand, Hon. Kyofatogabye also appreciated NMS for the call Centre innovation. He said it will bring the organisation closer to the clients by getting real time responses from the public.
Maj. Asiimwe requested the management of NMS to team up with the Resident District/ City Commissioners to get free government airtime in various media houses around the country. She said this will help them inform the public about the good work as a government organisation mandated to procure, store and distribute essential medicines and medical supplies to all public health facilities in the country.
“You can as well give the right information about your operations to the RDCs who can in turn disseminate the information to the people,” Maj. Asiimwe said.
On his part, Commissioner Bamwine called upon the NMS to work with the Presidency, local government and Health Ministry to unblock the communication channels.
” For us to be successful we need to unblock the communication from NMS to the receiving players. If we speak one voice consistently for three quarters, that will change the way the public perceives us,” he encouraged.
NMS General Manager, Mr. Moses Kamabare reiterated their commitment to continue offering better services to Ugandans.
Mr. Kamabare said the stores has a modern warehouse at Entebbe which is used for the orderly receipt, storage and packing of supplies destined to health facilities.
He explained that NMS delivers door to door at least once every two months to all government (3200) and other accredited facilities countrywide following a predetermined delivery schedule.
“The routine of medicines is once every 2 months for General Hospitals and lower health facilities and once every month for National Referrals,” Said Mr. Kamabare.
“NMS also has a system that enables us to process emergency orders within 24 hours. Each of the 10 Regional offices is manned Customer Care staff, including a pharmacist who continuously monitor and evaluate the service offering of NMS and support health facilities in the regions,”he added.
He however noted that there’s a need for increased funding for all the Essential Medicines and Health Supplies (EMHS), most especially mama kits, ARVs, TB medicines and laboratory supplies.
“NMS advocates for the enactment of the National Health Insurance Act, to bring in more direct contributions by Ugandans. This would be in addition to increased budgetary allocation by parliament for EMHS.”
Mr. Kamabare was also happy to note that they have already set up a Central Electronic Management System to track and monitor the supplied medicines across the country.
“NMS has already implemented the first phase of the system. Now we are remaining with the last milestone that connects our system to the centre . The final phase is being implemented by the Ministry of ICT and that of Health. We believe by the end of this year we shall have completed the pilot study and next year it will be fully operational,” he explained.
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