Central Medical Stores confirms lack of medicine in Malawi hospitals due to lack of money

Public hospitals are fast running out essential medical drugs because suppliers have stopped supplying the drugs to The Central Medical Stores Trust (CMST)  because of the government failure to pay them, Minister of Health Jappie Mhango has been told.

CMST chairperson Hilda Singo said the public medical drugs storage has run out of drugs now.

“The government has not been paying the suppliers their money so they have suspended the supply of the drugs to Central Medical Stores,” she said.

Public hospitals get their medical supplies from the Central Medical Stores.

Mhango could not comment on the matter immediately but most hospitals, including Thyolo and Nsanje district hospitals have already sent SOS on drug shortages.

Patients are only given prescriptions in public hospitals and told to buy the medicine from private pharmacies, which in most cases are beyond the reach of the poor patients.

This comes at a time when the government has come under fire for hiring foreign lawyers at K600 million for the appeals election case when public hospitals are running out of medicine due to lack of money.