Hospital attempts to justify paying $1,909 for $80 cream

Jun 18, 2012 News

…says amount paid to New GPC is OK

“Unless one item is overwhelmingly over-priced, we prefer to keep them within the list,” – Hospital Statement

The Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) through its Public Relations Officer (PRO), Alero Proctor, has attempted to justify a recent drug purchase by the Ministry of Health (MoH) where $1,909 was paid for a quantity of cream that is retailed for $80 each.
Proctor in the Hospital statement issued to the media yesterday, said, “Supplier quotations for a list of products are assessed as a package…We might request quotations for more than 400 products at a time.”

GPHC Head Michael Khan

The Hospital suggests, on behalf of the Ministry of Health, that “the common quoted products between suppliers are compared in terms of prices and the overall lowest price is accepted for the list…This is what happened on the last two occasions when KETOCONAZOLE were (sic) procured as one item of a list of items.”
The drug purchase in question involves the cream, KETOCONAZOLE which is used to treat jock itch, dandruff, athlete’s foot and similar ailments.
According to the Hospital explanation, this medicine was part of a large list and the overall cost was lower by purchasing through the NGPC.
This, she said, was a determination made through the evaluation process of the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board at the Ministry of Finance.
The Hospital insists that “Item-by item cost varies among suppliers” and “while we do take into consideration cost per item, the overall cost for a list of items is critical for overall savings.”
Proctor says that “unless one item is overwhelmingly over-priced, we prefer to keep them within the list.”
This statement, according to Proctor, suggests that the $1,909 paid to NGPC for a tube of cream that is retailed for $80, is not overpriced.
The Hospital statement said that “in instances where the cost for one item is priced far too high, we disaggregate out the items where the quoted prices are too high and remove them from the list.”

New GPC and Guyana Times Boss Dr. Bobby Ramroop

The GPHC Public Relations Officer suggests that some suppliers “will not want to supply just one or two or a small number of items from the list, particularly when the amount requested is too small.”
She said that “in this particular case, the total amount requested was a small amount.”
The government buys the cream from the New GPC and then distributes it to public hospitals and health centres.
When Kaieteur News first ran the story about the cost of the cream, the Guyana Times, carried an article in defense of the New GPC. They contended that the others were selling counterfeit drugs.
Both the Guyana Times and the New GPC are owned by Dr. Ranjisinghi Ramroop, the best friend of former President Bharrat Jagdeo.
The Guyana Times article sought to suggest that the cheaper creams being sold on the local market are counterfeit, or fake.
However, Kaieteur News has found that the very creams that the Guyana Times sought to label as fake are all being manufactured in India, including the one that the New GPC sells to the government through the Ministry of Health.
The same cream KETOCONAZOLE, is being manufactured by U.S. Company Johnson and Johnson in India.
This brand of the cream can be obtained for $210 here in Guyana.
Another company out of Britain also manufactures KETOCONAZOLE out of India. This is being sold in Guyana for $155.
The one the government buys from New GPC is also manufactured in India.
This particular one is not being sold in local drug stories but Kaieteur News, through its agent, managed to source it out of India for $80 per tube.
The maximum suggested retail price that is stated on the box is the equivalent of $127, inclusive of all taxes.
It simply means that the government is buying the cheapest one at a price that is almost 25 times the Indian retail price… or paying $1750 more for one tube.