STOP DICING WITH DEATH!

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.

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