Africa-Press – Mozambique. Three private pharmacies were closed and a further 45 fined for various irregularities as a result of inspection work carried out by the health sector between the months of January and September this year. Among the irregularities are price speculation and possession and sale of medicines without proof of origin.
The information was released on Thursday by Minister of Health, Armindo Tiago, during the opening ceremony of the 13th National Health Inspection Meeting.
Before presenting the statistics and the work carried out during the above-mentioned period, Minister Tiago laid out the relevance of inspection work for safeguarding the rights of citizens and officials linked to the sector.
“As a supervisory body for professional ethics and deontology, legality and internal control of acts carried out in the health sector, the Health Inspectorate has the primary role of protecting citizens and health workers, by verifying the correct application of legislation,” he pointed out. “In this way, Health Inspection contributes to the prevention of misconduct, with a view to maximising available resources and guaranteeing the quality of services provided.”
The minister then presented an overview of inspection work carried out in the first nine months of 2021.
“In the area of pharmaceutical inspection, the management of medicines in provincial and district warehouses shows some improvement, although challenges remain to improve management at the level of health units,” Minister Tiago said.
“Instances of smuggling and theft of medicines valued at more than one 1,300,000.00 meticais were uncovered in warehouses and health units, with the involvement of 14 civil servants and 22 other citizens,” he revealed.
In another development, the Minister of Health spoke of private pharmacies that operate outside the law.
“In the private sector of the pharmaceutical area, we visited 411 private pharmacies, where we found that cases of acquisition of pharmaceutical products in institutions not licensed by MISAU persist. We also registered the practice of speculative prices and prices not stamped on the packages. The inspection of private pharmacies resulted in 45 pharmacies being fined for various irregularities, three of which ended up temporarily closed for possession and sale of medicines without proof of their lawful origin,” Minister Tiago related.
According to the health authorities, 111 complaints were received and investigated in 2020, including theft of public assets, poor management of financial resources and poor service, which culminated in the opening of disciplinary proceedings against 212 employees, of which two culminated in termination of contracts, 13 in demotion, 14 in expulsion, 23 in dismissal, 79 in fines and 81 in public reprimands.
The 13th National Health Inspection Meeting lasts for two days and is held under the motto “Promoting the Community Health Subsystem to achieve Universal Health Coverage”.
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