By Lizzy Carr
The Bauchi State Drugs and Medical Consumables Management Agency (DMMA) has intensified efforts to strengthen access to affordable and quality essential medicines across public health institutions in the state
As part of its mandate to ensure continuous availability of essential drugs, the Agency has so far enrolled 352 healthcare facilities into the Drug Revolving Fund (DRF) scheme. These include 1 tertiary health facility, 27 secondary health facilities and 324 primary healthcare centres, representing 30 percent of public health facilities in the state.
But in it’s renewed push to expand coverage and increase availability of drugs and medical consumables at the grassroots,the Bauchi State governor Senator Bala Mohammed has approved the enrollment of 248 additional healthcare facilities, alongside the release of funds for their capitalization.
This has now increased the number of health facilities running DRF to six hundred
Managing Director of DMMA Abdulkadir Ahmed said following the governor’s approval, a team of assessors comprising pharmacists, essential drugs officers, logistics officers and monitoring and evaluation personnel from the State Ministry of Health & Social Welfare, DMMA, State Primary Health Care Board, Hospital Management Board (HMB) and Bauchi State Health Contributory Management Agency ( BASHCMA) have been deployed to conduct readiness assessments in 262 healthcare facilities proposed by the 20 local government areas for onboarding into the DRF scheme.
He commended the State government for its commitment to reduce our of pocket expenses on the people.
The assessment exercise, is currently ongoing and will last four days.
Upon completion of the exercise, the number of health facilities participating in the DRF scheme is expected to increase from 30 percent to 50 percent, marking a major milestone in the state government’s commitment to strengthening the healthcare delivery services in the state.
