Swazi Observer

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50% MEDICATION IN HOSPITALS

By SIFISO NHLABATSI | 2023-10-20

Government has said hospitals have 50 per cent medications as it admits that there is a health crisis.
There are low stock levels of drugs and commodities for effective health service delivery as the Central Medical Stores (CMS) is only able to deliver an estimated 50 per cent of the needed medicines per facility.

Government Spokesperson, Alpheous Nxumalo, yesterday said there was a health crisis, which has seen major gaps in some essential medicines, hence the request that there must be more funding for the health sector.

Some of the gaps in the essential medicines, according to Nxumalo, include family planning, malaria and non-communicable diseases.

This has seen patients having to purchase their own medication from privately owned pharmacies.
Nxumalo further said despite efforts to address the drugs shortage crisis, there was still a long way to go as facilities continue to receive less than required medicines.

He said health facilities could expect more medicine supply towards the end of the year because the new tender for the financial year started on October and the expected time of arrival of supplies is late October/November.

The government mouthpiece said to redress the situation, government would require an increased budget allocation to the ministry of health and clear the arrears to allow the ministry to operate within budget.

Government disclosed that it had paid E127 million to suppliers and that the payment to suppliers remains a priority intervention.

“Government, through the ministry of health, is in constant communication with suppliers on payments and the situation has improved with over E127 million paid to suppliers. The outstanding amounts are known between suppliers and the ministry and discussions are on-going to clear all outstanding debt,” Nxumalo stated.

Following the end of term of the 11th administration, he said principal secretaries in the relevant ministries, led by the Secretary to Cabinet Victor Nxumalo, took over this oversight role and the meetings for feedback continue to be held on a weekly basis.

Recently, Swazipharm Wholesale (Pty) Ltd, a company which supplies government with medicines, revealed that it was owed E54 million and this was affecting its operations.

Nurses have, however, cast aspersions on government’s capability to decisively deal with the drug shortages saying wanting budgetary allocation to the health ministry was inconsistent and self-defeating.

Former minister of health, Lizzie Nkosi, in 2021 said the drugs shortage was not caused by lack of funds but was due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the time, the minister said the pandemic affected international supply and availability of medicines, which was reinforced by the widespread lockdowns that were affected across the globe and that manufacturers indicated that they faced serious and unprecedented disturbances in the supply chain.
According to nurses, there also was nothing new to what government was saying.

Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU) Secretary General, Mayibongwe Masangane, it does not make sense to request for more funding for the health sector yet there was corruption, which was a major drain.

He said government on the one hand is calling for more funding yet on the other hand, is conducting investigations into alleged misappropriation of funds at the Central Medical Stores, amounting to millions.

“Clearly government needs to identify the problem and not complain about underfunding when there are investigations which pinpoint to millions worth of medicinal drugs going missing,” Masangane said.
They said government’s statement reflects that it was still in the dark on what the cause of the drug shortages was.

Essential
According to nurses some of the essential medicines where there are shortages include wound dressing paraphernalia, vaccines for under five year olds, family planning commodities, (ARVs), antibiotics, anti-inflammatory intravenous fluids, catheters among others.

Healthcare workers including nurses, radiographers and doctors have picketed over these medical drugs shortages saying that patients end up succumbing to preventable diseases.

“The situation on the ground is still the same. Nothing has changed and our members are still reporting shortage of drugs in hospitals and this then makes one-to-wonder what government is trying to achieve,” he further stated.

Government spokesperson said government was doing everything possible to address issues around mismanagement of medicines and medical supplies.

Nxumalo said following public outcry on medicine shortages, a Cabinet sub-committee was established in June 2023, which constituted of minister of finance, agriculture, health and commerce, industry and trade to address this issue.

Sufficient
He said among, the sub-committee found that the ministry of health’s budget was not sufficient to meet the health demands, resulting in accruing arrears over longer financial periods.

The sub-committee is also said to have recommended that the existing tenders from the previous financial year be extended for the period June to September 2023, which allowed for delivery of medicines and medical supplies to the Central Medical Stores.

Nxumalo said the sub-committee also sought to improve relationships with suppliers by addressing the outstanding payments.

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