THE Department of Health (DOH) on Friday, August 12, 2022, sought to appease the public amid reports of substandard personal protective equipment (PPE) purchased by the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) at the height of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.
In a press conference, DOH Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said the public has nothing to worry about as the health department and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rejected the said PPE supplies.
"We will never distribute to our implementing units PPEs that did not pass the quality and safety standards we have set," said Vergeire.
"There were batches of PPEs delivered to the DOH. We did our inspection, and we rejected these items because they did not pass our standards. We refused to accept them," she added.
She said this is because of the lack of the mandatory Certificate of Medical Device Notification (CMDN), which guarantees the safety and quality of the products.
"The CMDN is among the first requirements for PPEs to purchased and brought into the country," said the health official.
Vergeire, then, guaranteed to everybody that only PPEs that have met their standard quality have been distributed to the public, including healthcare workers.
"Those that have been delivered would be those that had been approved by our inspectorate as having high quality and have met standards needed to protect our health workers," said Vergeire.
In its report released recently, the Commission on Audit (COA) said there were seven contracts signed between PS-DBM and suppliers of PPEs that are without CMDNs.
The identified procurement contracts had a combined worth of P1.387 billion, according to COA report. (HDT/SunStar Philippines)