E10M MEDICAL BUCKETS LYING IDLE AT CMS

Matsapha – “How did government end up paying E10 million for unnecessary medical buckets”

This was among a number of questions raised by members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) during the committees surprise visit at the Central Medical Stores (CMS) yesterday.
The PAC discovered that apart from the hundreds of millions worth of expired medical drugs, it has been discovered that about E10 million worth of medical waste buckets were mistakenly ordered. The CMS staff failed to provide an explanation for the unnecessary procurement of the medical waste buckets much to the amazement of the PAC. It was unclear how government ended up paying for the buckets, as some of the staff said the buckets were ordered by mistake, while others said it was a case of an oversupply by the supplier.

This transpired during the PAC’s visit meant to verify the findings by the Auditor General’s (AG) Office. The yellow buckets are currently stacked in one of the warehouses at the CMS, while some of them were used to store expired chlorine.In hospital settings, a yellow dustbin is specifically used for the disposal of clinical and infectious waste. This category of waste includes materials that are contaminated with bodily fluids, such as dressings, swabs, gloves and any other items that have been in contact with infectious agents.

Mistake

However, the buc-kets are currently lying idle, which raised questions on why they were procured in the first place, if they were not needed. The CMS staff said the buckets were ordered by mistake and some said they were oversupplied, raising questions among the PAC members. Some of the committee members enquired if there was no other use for the buckets instead of just keeping them in the warehouse. However the CMS staff was not clear in their response, leaving the PAC hanging. The committee, however, resolved that the AG’s Office should look into the matter.

Explaining why the buckets were used to store the chlorine, CMS Senior Stores Officer, Nkosingphile Dlamini said when they discovered that the chlorine containers were corroded, and  requested the facility to provide them with an alternative containers to store the expired chlorine, while waiting for its disposal. “The AG raised a concern on why the chlorine was stored in alternative containers instead of their original containers. So we had to request the supplier to order the buckets and also requested authority to use them as we could not just take them from storage without their authorisation,” he said.

The stores officer said there was documentation in place for the procurement and use of the buckets, which had been lying idle at the warehouse. He, however, emphasised that there was a need to speed up the disposal of the chlorine, since it was a health hazard. PAC Chairperson Madala Mhlanga enquired if the CMS had received guidance on how to store the chlorine, as well and how long it should be kept in storage before disposal.

Disposal

In response, Dlamini explained that they did receive guidance after consultations with a disposal company, which advised them on how to package and store the chlorine. He added that the chlorine was part of the pharmaceuticals procured during the COVID-19 pandemic, hence most of the chlorine expired and had to be disposed of.Responding to questions on why the buckets were not donated for domestic use, CMS Acting Assistant Director Thuli Gama, said the buckets were specifically made for disposing pharmaceutical waste and were not suited for domestic use. Meanwhile, most of the PAC members observed with concern that a majority of the drugs in the storage warehouse were expired, while some of the shelves with the non-expired drugs were empty.

They said the expired drugs were not meant to be on the shelves unless they had the sticker or label that showed they were expired. The legislators said leaving the expired drugs on the shelves increased the risk of expired drugs ending up in health facilities, thus risking the lives of patients. A majority of the drugs in the warehouse were supplied by the country’s main supplier, while some of the donated drugs were later invoiced and paid for by government, according to some of the senior staff at CMS.

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