A “Question and Answer” Consul...

A “Question and Answer” Consultation Forum was held at the Lideta Branch of the Food and Drug Authority to improve service delivery

December 21/2018

The Lideta Branch of the Addis Ababa Food and Drug Authority held a “Question and Answer” forum with stakeholders, linking the activities it has carried out in the past six months with the Citizens’ Agreement Document.

It was stated that the event was held under the theme “Service Effectiveness Assurance: Accessibility and Excellence in Lideta”.

Representatives of government and private health institutions, pharmacies, food and health-related institutions and other stakeholders who receive services from the branch office participated.

According to Ato Habtu Addis, who presented the six-month performance report in conjunction with the Citizens’ Agreement Document; He stated that the inspection work carried out on health, medicine and food institutions in the past six months has achieved excellent results. In particular, products worth more than 3.6 million birr that pose a threat to public health and have expired have been identified and removed.

It was also noted that the Citizens’ Agreement requires consumers to be aware of their rights and demand quality services, and service providers to work according to the established time limits and standards.

Among the points raised by the participants:

* The time limits for correcting building standard gaps observed during inspections and the associated economic pressures,

* The importance of requirements for renewing a qualification certificate (for example, professional health examination),

* Addressing the shortage of emergency medicines and the health risk caused by selling medicines without a prescription (Antimicrobial Resistance),

* Issues such as the similarity of institution names and working in coordination with business registration were widely discussed.

The Head of the Food and Drug Administration Office of the Lideta Branch, Ato Belayneh Gebru, stated that the main purpose of the discussion was to strengthen the transparency of the operation from the authority to the cluster and to ensure that customer complaints receive a prompt response.

They responded to the questions and comments raised and expressed their intention to improve their service delivery by taking into account the suggestions given for improving service delivery.