PharmaLeaders - World Health News

Minister Defends New NHIF Rates

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 07:42:00 +0000

Nairobi, Sep 06, 2010 (The Nation/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) -- The proposed higher health insurance deductions will have widespread benefits, a Cabinet minister has said.

The plan by the National Health Insurance Fund to increase the amount each worker paid per month would improve medical services, making healthcare more accessible to the poor, Medical Services minister Anyang' Nyong'o said on Thursday.

"If you make Sh800,000 like I do, and contribute Sh2,000 monthly, the increase amounts to about Sh66 per day," he said. "I'm going for lunch at the Serena Hotel today and will spend about Sh2,500 on lunch, so why...

Global Fund Suspect Pinned Over Sh31 Million

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 07:19:00 +0000

Kampala, Sep 06, 2010 (New Vision/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) -- The director of Mulumba Inc, Stephen Wakhweya, accused of mismanaging sh31m of the Global Fund money, bought medical insurance worth 7.2m from the International Air Ambulance (IAA) Hospital.

Flavia Nansubuga, the operational manager of IAA, told the Anti-corruption Court yesterday that Wakhweya was registered as a silver client of IAA in the name of Mulumba Inc, an NGO that was contracted to carry out Global Fund activities.

Nansubuga told Justice Paul Mugamba that Wakhweya registered at IAA in 2005. Personal silver cover gives patients unlimited access to treatment.

David Namanya, the...

Hospital Officials Say Yobe Women Sell Free Drugs

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 07:17:00 +0000

Damaturu, Sep 06, 2010 (Daily Trust/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) -- Authorities of the Sani Abacha Specialist Hospital in Damaturu have expressed concern over the attitude of some women who collect drugs provided free of change by the Yobe State government only to sell them to operators of patent medicine stores.

Secretary of the hospital, Mallam Habu Sani who spoke to journalists yesterday said the attitude was sabotaging the initiative of government aimed at improving maternal and child health through distribution of free drugs to women, accident victims and children below the age of five in all public hospitals in...

Gulu Hospitals Lack Medicine

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 07:08:00 +0000

Kampala, Sep 06, 2010 (New Vision/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) -- The community in Lalogi sub-county in Gulu district is facing an acute shortage of essential drugs.

Most patients say health workers prescribe drugs and direct them to buy them from private clinics or drug shops. Peninna Lallam, 46, on Thursday said a medical assistant at Loyo Ajonga told her to buy anti-malarial drugs from a clinic at Lalogi, about 20 kilometres away.

Okello Patrick, 36, said he was told to buy drugs from Lalogi Clinic because there were no anti-malarial drugs at Lalogi Health Centre. "I thought if you are...

Ministry inspects Tokyo hospital over superbug infection+

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 06:45:00 +0000

TOKYO, Sept. 6 -- (Kyodo) _ The health ministry inspected Teikyo University Hospital in Tokyo on Monday over the deaths there of inpatients from infection with antibiotic-resistant bacteria and the facility's late reporting of the situation to authorities.

It was the first time that the central government conducted an on-site inspection of the facility since the infections came to light last week. Tokyo metropolitan government officials also joined the inspection.

Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Police Department has also begun questioning doctors and others at the hospital on a voluntary basis as part of its investigation on suspicion of professional negligence resulting in...