Kaduna State has introduced new medical supply-chain system to hospitals so as to eliminate wastage as well as to code and track drugs supplied to the end users.

The Executive Secretary of Kaduna State Drug Supply and Management Agency, Ramatu Abdulkadir disclosed this at a roundtable discussion on childbirth spacing; saying the move was aimed at ensuring a cost-effective supply and distribution system in the state.

According to her, the state government spends an average of N144,000 in transporting drugs to general hospitals and another N300,000 to transport drugs to Primary Health Care Centres (PHC).

She, however, explained that the pilot project involving a third party in the distribution of drugs has brought down the figure to N35 to general hospitals and N300 to PHCs. She added that the distribution of medical drugs and supplies to hospitals which normally take 36 days to complete has been brought down to three days in the 56 facilities covered by the pilot project.

Earlier the Vice Chairman of FHANI, Bala Tijjani who explained that the advocacy group focuses on safe motherhood and general improvement of maternal and child health also commended the state government for the allocation of N100million in the 2017 budget for procurement of consumables aimed at making child spacing services free to women, especially at the grass root.

Tijjani noted that through the commitment of the advocacy group, budget line was secured for family health activities from the 23 local government councils in the state.