What explains Uganda’s medicine stockouts?

Stockouts are a regular occurence in public health facilities, undermining efforts to improve the quality of healthcare in Uganda.

Davis Ojok, a plumber in Kiwatule, says it is not uncommon to visit a public health facility only to be told drugs are out.

“Sometimes you wonder if the government really sends drugs to hospitals,” Ojok says.

This state of affairs usually breeds frustration and anger among patients and their attendants. Below are the reasons why Ugandan hospitals usually record a high level of drug stockouts.

Stock-outs are mainly a result of theft of drugs, health facilities failing to make their orders on time and artificial shortages caused by staff.

Some of the lower health facilities such as health center IVs, IIIs and IIs delay to make their orders and that perhaps means that they do not have patients.

Artificial shortages are caused by doctors prescribing drugs which aren’t available in the health facility rather than those in the facility. For example, a patient may present with malaria and instead of being given a coartem available within the health facility, he or she is referred to a private pharmacy to buy another drug.

Some of the available drugs are diverted by health workers into private pharmacies which creates an artificial shortage.