Times Of Swaziland: STOP DICING WITH DEATH!

STOP DICING WITH DEATH!
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BY SIBONGILE SUKATI on 04/10/2017 09:39:00


Three months later, the Ministry of Health has finally received a batch of polio
vaccine, but many other drugs in our hospitals and clinics remain out of stock.
(See Page 10)
Polio, as we know, is a contagious disease and can cause paralysis, difficulty
breathing and sometimes death. This is a drug you cannot afford not to have in
stock, even for a minute. Other medication that is hopefully on the way is
Carvedilol, which is used to treat high blood pressure and heart failure.
The risk posed by the absence of these drugs to the patients is too critical for
anyone to suggest there is no drug shortage crisis in this country. Anybody
denying this deserves to be accused of being part of a conspiracy to commit mass
murder in this country.
Fuelling such a conspiracy are comments by the chief pharmacist in the Ministry
of Health who says she is sitting with a storeroom full of medication, yet sick
people continue to be turned away at the country’s hospitals and clinics.
The reason for this, she says, is that nurses have not given her the full list
of required drugs when asked to place emergency orders for out of stock drugs.
She suspects the nurses may have an agenda.
Nurses, on the other hand, allege the drug shortages are caused by infighting
over kickbacks from suppliers. Other delays have been attributed to the ongoing
changes at the medical stores meant to increase drug distribution efficiency. A
recent inquiry into the drug shortage came out with recommendations that do not
seem to be having any effect.
There is no telling yet how many people have lost their lives while the Health
Ministry attempts to put its house in order. Only one person is responsible for
all this precarious state of health affairs and that’s the minister.
We therefore call upon the Health Minister, Sibongile Simelane, to sit in her
office for a change, stop the political rhetoric and deal with this mess before
funeral bills and massive lawsuits come flying her way.