The Ministry of Health (MISAU) is to introduce an electronic mechanism for tracking the distribution of medicines, a measure aimed at combating the detour of drugs in hospitals. 

The information was given this Monday (10) in Maputo by the Minister of Health, Hussene Isse, on Radio Mozambique's "Cartas na Mesa" program.

The minister said there was no justification for the medicines that the state buys every year not reaching the health units.

"When we visit the medicine warehouses, we see that the warehouses have all the vital medicines to treat the main diseases in our country, but from the warehouse to the hospital, it starts to diminish, from the hospital to the health center it diminishes even more and by the time you get to the pharmacy to see the patient, the medicine is already missing," he lamented.

He added that, "then, logically, there are problems, there is a huge amount of work that the sector has to do with everyone's collaboration, because many of these medicines that disappear from the system are outside.

As a measure to put an end to the detour of medicines, the minister said that "every Monday, the pharmacist should share with all those who prescribe medicines in the hospital, what the availability of medicines is for that week, which is to avoid prescribing medicines that are not available that week, because there is a shortage".