By Christiana Ekpa
The House of Representatives Wednesday mandated its Committee on Health Institutions to investigate the collapse of the drug revolving funds scheme.
The Committee is expected verify the facts and report back within four weeks for further legislative actions.
These resolutions followed the adoption of a motion titled, “Collapse Revolving Funds and Indebtedness of Federal Health Institutions to the Pharmaceutical Firms in Nigeria” sponsored by Hon. Adedayo Samuel Adesola, Hon. Amos Magaji Gwamna and Hon. Regina Akume.
The House noted that the drug revolving funds scheme, created as a result of the Essential Drug Act, was to address challenges of the perennial out of stock syndrome of drugs in public health institutions.
It also noted that the scheme was initially successful, but has been mutilated by hospital management, resulting in pharmaceutical firms owing N18 billion in 2021 and N30 billion in 2023.
The House said it was aware of the existence of the Drugs Revolving Funds (DRF), a National Contingency Plan designed to tackle the menace of out-of-stock syndrome in public pharmacy department and ensure that federal health institutions are adequately stocked with essential drugs for medically challenged Nigerians.
The House said it was cognizant that a well-run Drugs Revolving Funds (DRF) tackled the menace of the out-of-stock syndromes in public pharmacy department.
It said the DRF scheme of the National Orthopedic Hospital, Igbobi (NOHI) which was flagship over a decade ago gave birth to a pharmacy house worth over N300 million in 2014 because the management of the hospital at the time gave the much-needed cooperation.
The House worried that this laudable initiative has been abused over a period of time through the accumulation of unpaid supplies from pharmaceutical firm under this funding arrangement, culminating in its eventual collapse.
