The Ministry of Health will be introducing advanced screening technology in the near future, with a view to ensuring the effective and comprehensive distribution of medicines in health facilities to the population.

The information was given yesterday in the city of Nampula by the Minister of Health, Ussene Isse, who acknowledged the lack of medicines in hospitals, partly due to theft and embezzlement by some employees in the sector for personal purposes.

This is a mechanism to be implemented by a South Korean company, as part of an initiative by the Mozambican authorities to improve the provision of health services by the state.

The minister said, as quoted by "Notícias", that the system will consist of real-time monitoring "software", which will make it possible to follow the trajectory of medicines from the central warehouse to their distribution in hospitals.

He also said that the tracking system would be applied in all health units and provincial health directorates, with the aim of strictly controlling stocks and distribution, making it possible to immediately identify irregularities and take action against any deviations.

The minister believes that technological innovation will represent a significant advance in the efficient management of NHS resources, as well as improving access to essential medicines for the population.

The minister was speaking to journalists at the Nampula Central Hospital (HCN), where, in the company of three specialists, he led a successful surgery on a 32-year-old patient who had been suffering from a tumor in her neck, called a goiter, for five years.