DOH flagged over P11.2 billionexpired drugs, COVID-19 vax

MANILA, Philippines —  The Commission on Audit (COA) has flagged the Department of Health (DOH) over P11.2 billion worth of medicines, medical supplies as well as COVID-19 vaccines found expired in its warehouses and health facilities last year.

“Drugs, medicines and medical supplies amounting to P11,186,368,902.47, which include 7,035,161 vials of COVID-19 vaccines, expired in the DOH warehouses and health facilities without being utilized due to inadequate procurement planning and poor distribution and monitoring systems, which resulted in wastage of government funds and resources,” the COA said in its 2023 annual audit report on the DOH.

The audit body said this was on top of P65.444 million in “nearly expiring inventories” found “unutilized and undistributed” in DOH offices and health facilities as of Dec. 31 last year.

State auditors noted that these nearly expiring drugs and medicines, which remained under the DOH inventories, have a shelf life of less than one year, thus exposing government funds to another possible wastage.

The audit breakdown showed that the DOH Central Office (CO) was responsible for the bulk of the expired inventories amounting to P11.1 billion, composed of 6,754,724 vials of expired COVID-19 vaccines and 24,539 bags of donated dialysis solution.

As for the expired COVID-19 vaccines under the DOH CO’s custody, 5,428,915 vials were procured by the government while 1,325,809 vials were received as donations.

The COA said the expiration of these huge sums of vaccines exposed the DOH’s “inability to safeguard, manage and utilize health funds and resources economically and effectively.”

“Further, this condition had entailed storage and manpower costs, which could have aided the government in rendering other priority services,” the COA added.

As for the expired dialysis solution bags, the audit body noted that the items were still received by the DOH CO even if they have less than one and a half years “before expiration,” also referred to as shelf life.

As a result, most of the intended recipient hospitals and facilities refused to accept the items due to “lack of storage space” and because they can no longer utilize the solutions, according to the COA.

It said this contravened the DOH’s own guidelines, under its Administrative Order 9-B series of 1998, which states that for the acceptance of drugs, medicines, reagents and other medical supplies, the expiration date “should not be less than two years from the date of manufacture and not less than one and a half years from the date of delivery.”

Other health facilities identified in the audit report with expired inventories were the Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital and Sanitarium in Caloocan City amounting to P15.974 million; Davao Center for Health Development (P5.272 million); the DOH’s Center for Health Development I (P5.245 million); Region II Trauma and Medical Center in Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya (P4.989 million); Ilocos Training and Regional Medical Center in La Union (P4.678 million); Southern Isabela Medical Center in Santiago, Isabela (P3.243 million); Mariano Marcos Memorial Hospital and Medical Center in Ilocos Norte (P2.667 million); Valenzuela Medical Center (P1.755 million); Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital in Bacolod City (P1.463 million) and Region 1 Medical Center in Dagupan, Pangasinan (P716,738).