The much awaited Central Medical Services Society (CMSS), established by the Union health ministry to streamline the drug procurement and distribution system of the department of health and family welfare by eliminating the existing deficiencies in the system, will become fully operational soon as the recruitment process for setting up a full-fledged office for CMSS is in full swing at present.  

According to senior officials involved in the process, Navneet Verma has been appointed as the director general (DG) and chief executive officer (CEO) of the newly formed organisation which 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.

Besides the appointment of CEO, several senior positions including that of general manager have also been filled and the process of recruitment is in the final stages.  “We are in the process of setting up the office for the CMSS and the recruitment process is also going on. Once the infrastructure is ready, we will start drug procurement”, a senior official said.

The CMSS will be responsible for procuring health sector goods in a transparent and cost-effective manner and distributing them to the state/UT governments by setting up IT enabled supply chain infrastructure including state warehouses in 50 locations spread across the country.  This central procurement agency of ministry of health and family welfare will be doing all the drug procurement now being done by the dept of family welfare.

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.