BCG vaccine shortage in public hospitals in Nakuru County has been caused by the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency (KEMSA) delaying supply, health director has said.
Speaking at his office Thursday morning, county director of health Benedict Osore said that they had nothing to do since Kemsa could not supply the vaccines because the shipment had not arrived at the Mombasa port.
Osore said that they placed the order for the supply of the vaccines with Kemsa in December last year but up to now the delivery has not been made.
“We have very limited BCG Polio vaccines in our hospitals and even some of them do not have any single vaccine. That is why some parents have been sent to buy the vaccine from a private clinic,” Osore said.
He added, “We placed an order with Kemsa and we called them this morning and they said that the shipment had just checked at the port and any time from tomorrow we expect the vaccines to be in out hospitals.”
Osore said the problem was with the government procurement process which takes long and since county governments rely on Kemsa for supply of medicines, there is nothing they could have done in the meantime other than sending parents to buy from private clinics.
He was reacting to complaints from mothers who had presented their children for the administration of the polio vaccine at public hospitals in Nakuru before they were sent to buy the vaccine from a private clinics.