SOME HOSPITAL STAFF CASH IN ON HEALTH CRISIS

MBABANE – Some Health employees continue undeterred to exploit the shortage of medical drugs for their personal gain.

An undercover investigation by this publication revealed that patients who require services for a scan at the Mbabane Government Hospital are charged E100 for securing a spot since the queues are too long. Medical scans help doctors diagnose everything from head trauma to foot pain. There are many different types of imaging technologies. Each works differently.
Since the hospital has one radiographer, patients struggle for scans unless their case is one of emergency or they are admitted. This reporter went undercover and established that there is only one radiographer at the hospital, which contributes to the long queues.

Proceeding

To verify the facts, this reporter had to follow the processes at the hospital, where upon arrival at the hospital around 10am, bought the outpatient prescription form also known as the green card before proceeding to the X-ray Department to access a scan. However, one of the reporters was directed to the gynae clinic to see a doctor who would refer her for scanning.
During the investigation, which lasted about six hours at the hospital, having arrived at 10am and remaining at the hospital until 4pm, it was also uncovered that the nurses were reportedly selling pregnancy tests, while assisting patients. The reporter was told to conduct a pregnancy test after she had told the nurse that she had missed her periods for the past three months. The nurse recommended that a pregnancy test be conducted. First, she apologised that they would require urine and told that she would have to use a surgical glove to collect the urine, as they did not have the medical plastic bottles.

Patients

The nurse then told the reporter that she had to pay E20 for the test, as the hospital did not have it and they were providing instead of referring patients to buy in town at private pharmacies which could take them long. Some patients who were in the queue stated that they had woken up very early to beat the long queue and arrived at the hospital as early as 7am, but were still not attended to by 4pm. They stated that they were informed to come the following day as the radiographer would no longer attend to them. However, the patients said they were unhappy because some people were given preference to see the radiographer despite the fact that they were behind in the queue.

A patient who had been turned back told this reporter that she decided to ask the security guard for a favour to jump the queue, as she came from very far away and would not be able to come back to the hospital the following day. She said the security guard told her to pay E100 via Mobile Money and put her through. This, she alleged, was despite that she had paid the E10 hospital fee and E20 for the scan, which is officially charged by the hospital. Some of the patients also stated that they were made to buy the ultrasound gel at E20 per ointment container.  “We were told the hospital does not have the gel, hence we have to buy it from our pockets,” the patient stated.

A health official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, stated that they were aware of the allegations of securing a spot for E100 and buying the ultrasound gel. The officer said when they tried following up why the ultrasound gel was being sold, they discovered that it was out of stock from the hospital. He said the healthcare workers then made contributions due to the fact that the gel was expensive when buying individually and came in large containers yet patients used very little of it. According to the officer, the healthcare workers then sell it to the patients in small ointment containers. This, the officer stated, is in order for the nurses to continue assisting the patients without having to tell them to go to town to buy the gel.
The officer said inasmuch as they understood that services had to continue, selling the items at the hospital is not a good idea.

He added that the tricky part is that the healthcare workers continue to sell it even when stock is available, adding that such could not be monitored.  When sought for comment, Communications Officer in the Ministry of Health Nsindiso Tsabedze stated that the allegation of healthcare workers selling to patients is very serious. Tsabedze said they were shocked to learn that patients were paying to jump the queue for the scan at the hospital. He said the ministry would conduct its own investigation and he pleaded with whoever had information to come forward in order to assist the inquiry.

Information

Tsabedze said informants could also come to his office to provide information in order to get to the bottom of the matter. Meanwhile, a syndicate that sells medical drugs at Motshane Community Clinic was exposed in June by this publication. The syndicate was believed to run a retail pharmacy within the clinic and offered medication that was said to be in stock-out, at a price. The operation of the syndicate was uncovered in two different investigations by this publication’s reporters, following growing concerns that patients were being fleeced when urgently seeking treatment. According to sources, the syndicate normally sells sexually transmitted infections (STI) medication at about E80, depending on the type of medication.
For example, the price of Ceftriaxone 1gram (injection) [50 vials] ranged from E10 to E20. The mandatory outpatient fee is E7 for medical treatment.

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