The Central Medical Stores Trust (CMST) sees ray of hope that its first ever Annual General Meeting (AGM) will enhance its operations and help to end numerous bottlenecks in its work of procurement and supply of medical drugs.
On Thursday, CMST held its first AGM in the capital city Lilongwe where stakeholders had an opportunity to hear and digest the CMST past activity reports.
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| Itimu |
According to CMST Board Chairperson Evelyn Itimu holding the AGM offer them an opportunity to get views from stakeholders on how they can work together and attain unenterrupted medical supplies in the country's hospitals.
“We have never interacted with the stakeholders" said Itimu, "We have been in operation with all struggles this long and we have never had feedback or input from these stakeholders”
Then she said the AGM was also a right platform to tackle some of the challenges facing the institution on funding in particular “We are still looking at the issue of recapitalization because we don’t seem to have enough cash flow to operate the trust as a result we are being faced with the challenge of insuffient funds to procure drugs and sometimes when we supply the drugs it takes time to receive the payment.”
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| Some of the medical supplies showcased at the AGM |
To effectively acquire all medical supplies to last a year, Itimu says CMST requires K40 billion but with prevailing conditions on funding it can not meet that.
However, she said several strategies have been put in place to secure enough funding so that the Trust procure and has more stocks available for the list of the most "must have drugs"
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| Pharmanova also showcased at the AGM |
The CMST Board Chairperson also said that currently, one of the strategies is to cement its partnership with African Development Bank (ADB) who are supporting the Trust with finance and DFID supporting the institution with drug supplies.
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