The Director of Health Security and Emergencies at the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, Dr. Mohamed Alex Vandi, has revealed that a total of 12.7million new Leones which is equivalent to 12.7 billion old Leones was spent on 54 patients to receive treatment abroad under administrative division between January-June 2022, adding that they have already spent twice the previous amount that was allocated to it.

He made this statement during the bilateral budget discussion between the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Finance which took place at one of the conference rooms in the Ministry of Finance at George Street in Freetown wherein stakeholders in both ministries participated in.

Vandi mentioned that the reason for overspending on Hospital and Ambulance services was as a result of payments made for NEMS and Cost Recovery Drugs.

According to him, hospital and Princess Christian Maternity Hospital, training over 100 specialists over 10 years, health financing strategy development, validation and launching in 2021 on UHC commemoration and reporting rates of service utilization of all health facilities, adding that in June, 94% of PHUS reported on their stock of essential drugs, for example.

He furthered that the grand total of FY2023 17 Domestic PIPS Budget (Ongoing Domestic PIPS) involves an amount of (NLe 57,131.0).

Vandi continued that the MDA total for the 2023 Recurrent Budget Request is 99,044.60. Budget Ceiling – Recurrent Expenditure is NLe 64,439.4 and Excess over ceiling if positive is (34,605.2NLe).

Prince E. O. Cole, the senior permanent secretary of MOH mentioned that the running of the ministry is extremely challenging as they are out of so many logistics for the daily operations of the ministry.

He thereby went on to implore the MOF to look into the challenges faced and addressed them.

“When you presented for 2021, we noticed that the ministry exceeded the budget that was allocated to it, which has been noted.

However, we might not adopt the budget for now but the budget will be under serious consideration,” Samuel E. B Momoh, Senior Deputy Financial Secretary of MOF assures. PSN/26/9/2022