Doctors against kits distributor

National, Normal
Source:

The National, Monday January 13th, 2014

 THE National Doctors’ Association has expressed opposition to the government’s decision to award Borneo Pacific Pharmaceuticals the contract to supply health centre and aid post kits in the country. 

In a statement, national president Dr James Naipao said that questions and complaints surfaced as a result of the company not have ISO 9001 (International Standards Organisation) accreditation. 

“ISO 9000 primarily deals with the fundamental of quality management systems designed to help organisations ensure that they meet the needs of customers and other stakeholders while meeting statutory and regulatory requirements related to a product,” Naipao said. “ISO 9001 deals with the requirements that organisations wishing to meet the standard must fulfil.”

Naipao said third party certification bodies provided independent confirmation that organisations met ISO 9001 requirements.

“Over a million organisations worldwide are independently certified and ISO 9001 is renewed every three years.

“If Borneo is not ISO 9001 certified and goes ahead to bring drugs into the country from a ‘bush pharmaceutical manufacturer” in China or elsewhere then who gets the blame when patients die from counterfeit drugs?

“When that happens, the government has murdered its people and is that the intention of the government?”

The association listed eight demands to the government, including that the Central Supply and Tenders Board make public tendering and scoring steps and procedures that led to the contract being awarded.