‘WILL GOVT COMPENSATE US?’

MANZINI- The issue of drug shortage in the country continues to stride and patients want to know if government will compensate them for the wasted bus fare each time they visited a health facility.

The Raleigh Fitkin Memorial (RFM) Hospital has not been spared from the incessant drug shortages.
This assertion was also confirmed by the institution’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ben Simelane yesterday, during an interview. 

Such predicament is pretty similar to other health facilities in the kingdom which are also subject to the impediment of drug shortages.
This happens at a time where the country’s Prime Minister, Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini just recently cited the health sector as key in playing a major role in reviving the country’s economy. The submissions were a culmination of the Eswatini Strategic Road Map 2019 -2023 launched recently.

 A handful of patients interviewed at RFM hospital yesterday, vented out their frustration over the dilemma of shortage of drugs, however, they all preferred to comment on condition of anonymity.

Sorrowful

One of the patients, a woman aged 54, residing on the outskirts of the city, narrated her sorrowful tale that she had been on a countless number of times been subjected to incidents where she was informed that there was shortage of medication at the facility.

She said instead of receiving the medication she needed, she was handed a prescription and was ordered to seek the medication at a pharmacy. The woman mentioned that roughly, she had spent more than E 500 on transport to and from the hospital yet in all instances, she had to go back home empty-handed because she was informed that her medication was not available.

This has been going on for close to a month now.
   “The nurses would from time to time turn me back on grounds that there was a shortage of medication at the facility,” she said.
She further mentioned that she was given a prescription to source the medication from the pharmacy that was very expensive and, as a result, she couldn’t afford it.

The woman said such a situation propelled her to keep on coming back to the health facility hoping that the situation would change.
However, much to her amazement, she said as things stood, it appeared that the situation was far from over.
Another patient who was interviewed narrated her ordeal and she said she had spent more than E200 on transport, travelling to and from the health facility.
She resides close to the city.

She said she was suffering from an undisclosed sickness that required her to obtain certain injections from the heath facility but she was constantly given a directive that she had to go and source it elsewhere because that certain medication was out of stock at the hospital.

Similar

Speaking on condition of anonymity was yet another patient who said she had been subjected to a similar predicament, as she was also turned back on three consecutive times by the nurses after informing her that her medication was out of stock.    
She said if she had things her way, she would never set foot at that health facility ever again.
“However, it’s unfortunate that I don’t have any other alternative,” she said.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: