$161M spent to expand drugs bond and reduce rentals

The Ministry of Public Health’s Materials Management Unit Friday officially commissioned the expanded drugs bond at Diamond, East Bank Demerara.

The expansion of the Diamond drug bond is an effort to correct deficiencies in the procurement and distribution of drugs to health institutions across the country.

The Minister of Public Heath, Volda Lawrence, said the additional storage space will be able to reduce off-site storage locations.

Minister Lawrence said an amount of about $161M was invested to ensure they have space and capacity in order to store drugs and medical supplies so that the government would not have to spend more money on renting storage facilities.

“We recognize that there is an urgent need to make an investment because we will continue to be supplying drugs and medical supplies, so why not have our own place?” Minister Lawrence said.

She noted: “The rental of buildings, we know, have been quite a fiasco in Guyana for some time.”

Minister Lawrence said this expansion will also help to better manage the drugs inventory.

The Minister said: “We now have a warehouse with greater storage space that can house an increase in our drugs and medical supplies which are intrinsic to our enhancement in the delivery of health care services across our beloved country.”

 Cecil Jacques, the Director at the Diamond drug bond, said the expansion will ensure the storage of more medicines to make them available to the 372 health facilities across Guyana.

“The Ministry of Public Health in its Vision 2020 Focus Strategy…seeks to improve the timeliness, accessibility and adequacy of the supply of essential quality, safe cost effective scientifically sound drugs and medical products to health facilities in all the regions,” Jacques said.

The expansion project also included a mini-laboratory where the Ministry can assess medicines that comes into the country.

Marcia John, a pharmacist at the Ministry of Public Health, said the lab will enable the testing of drugs before distribution to ensure they are the best quality products and not falsified.