The Central Medical Services Society (CMSS), set up by the union health ministry on March 22 this year to eliminate the existing deficiencies and streamline the drug procurement and distribution system of the department of  health and family welfare, will take another eight to nine months before it becomes fully operational.

Ministry sources said that activities in this direction are going on in full stream to make the CMSS operational at the earliest possible time as the establishment of a central procurement agency has been long overdue.  Though the government has established the agency in March, it may take another eight to nine months before it starts the real procurement process as there are several long procedures involved in it, sources added.

Once fully operational, CMSS will be responsible for the procurement of quality health sector goods and services required by the department of health and family welfare, ministry of health and family welfare, government of India in a transparent and fair manner and make goods available at convenient locations for the benefit of users by addressing efficiently the supply chain issues.

It will function as an independent, professional and autonomous agency for purchasing all medicines, vaccines, contraceptives and medical equipments for all the government's disease control programmes.

At present, the health ministry is procuring drugs, vaccines, contraceptives and medical equipments departmentally and through procurement agents for its various disease control programmes. However, certain deficiencies, such as inadequate professional procurement expertise, absence of supply chain management system, manual collection of data and absence of any credible Management Information System (MIS) have been adversely affecting the procurement system.

The ministry thought of setting up a central procurement agency like CMSS as senior officials in the ministry felt that a professional, autonomous and efficient organization like CMSS is needed to eliminate the existing deficiencies and streamline the drug procurement and distribution system in the country.

There is a feeling among the senior officials that the establishment of CMSS will enable the union health ministry to efficiently procure and properly distribute quality medicines, vaccines, contraceptives and medical equipments to the state/Union Territory governments and also eliminate shortages and wastages, resulting in considerable savings to the government.