NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 25 – Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA) has resumed supply of Health Products and Technologies to Narok County after a three-year break, having received over 90 pc (Sh91.2M) of the pending bill of Sh104 million.
The Narok County Pharmacist Dr. Dan Ngere revealed that the County has settled the bulk of the outstanding bill and currently owes KEMSA only Sh12.8million.
“We are upbeat to resume buying HPTs from KEMSA with whom we have had a cordial relationship after repaying our debt and commit to procure all our non-pharmaceutical and pharmaceutical commodities from the Authority given that the medical supplier is efficient in delivering all its supplies to the doorstep of all mapped health facilities,” said the Pharmacist.
Ngere added that before the break from KEMSA, Narok procured over 50 per cent of Health Products and Technologies (HTPs) from the authority and will upscale to a higher percentage after sorting out all the bottlenecks that hindered the smooth payment for commodities procured from the supplier.
Following the resumption of business with KMESA, Narok has procured over Sh400, 000 worth of medical commodities with Lolgorian (Transmara West) and Ololulunga (Narok South) Health Centres already having received their orders while delivery to Narok County Referral Hospital is scheduled for next week.
The medic observed that since KEMSA supplies all HPTs to public health facilities, which are crucial for the achievement of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) agenda for Kenyans, the Authority should increase more items in theatre, renal and dental care to be procured under UHC to cater for diverse needs.
“Under UHC, counties procure theatre drugs, renal, dental and eye clinic commodities through KEMSA and Narok will exploit this window to maximize stocks for its facilities to address common ailments attended to such as respiratory complications, lifestyle diseases such as diabetes and hypertension for middle aged people and maternity services,” he said.
The county has since been granted a grace period of 45 days (until the 6th Dec) to clear the outstanding bill of Sh12.8 million.
KEMSA Ag. CEO Edward Njoroge on the other hand said that following the amendments of the KEMSA Act, the Authority would continue to ensure that all the counties have uninterrupted access to HPTs.
Njoroge said KEMSA management continues to engage with the National Treasury, Ministry of Health (MoH), Council of Governors (COG) and the Senate, to exert pressure on counties to prioritize debt settlement to KEMSA.
Meanwhile he commended Narok County for their move to clear the long-standing pending bill, which had put a strain on KEMSA’s revolving fund.
“The Authority offers a credit period of 45 days. We will continue to release supplies to the Counties because we have had engagements with them and agreed on repayment commitments timelines, and many of the Counties have since honoured their promises,” he echoed.
At the onset of the year, Counties owed KEMSA Sh2.8 billion according to data from the authority. This is despite the government’s directive that all debts owed to suppliers be cleared by the devolved units.
The data shows that by January 16, Nairobi topped the list with a debt of Sh353 million.
The authority has, however, noted goodwill from the counties with Kitui, Kilifi and Nyandarua keen to clear their outstanding bills.
Kilifi follows with the second-largest debt at Sh199.1 million, Kiambu (Sh141.6 million), Busia (Sh119.08 million) and Vihiga at Sh114.4 million.
The authority in 2019 rolled out the KEMSA Logistics Management Information System (LMIS-3 version) to counties and county facilities to facilitate ease in order management including order placement and reporting.
“The authority will continue to build the capacity of the counties in commodities and consumption data management to ensure that forecasting and quantification is based on data collected through LMIS from all the health facilities countrywide,” Njoroge noted.
