Home | Feature | HEALTH OR DEATH?

HEALTH OR DEATH?

Font size: Decrease font Enlarge font

IT is said ‘you will never miss the water until the well runs dry’. This saying holds true. Some will never see the need to provide certain services to people until they are in need themselves.

I am not sure whether those in government are aware that they are in government because there are people to be governed. There will never be a government without the people. A warning as well would be that you will never be a government when the people decide not to be governed.


The most fundamental right a person may have is the right to life. The very beginning of everything is life. The very first right recognised by our Constitution in Section 15 is the protection of life. To enjoy all the other human rights and all other things, one must have life. Health therefore is of paramount importance in everything and every sphere of life but that is not the case with government. The health of the nation is not important to government.


Not long ago I mentioned that sick people were being turned back from hospitals because they are not carrying identity cards and we were told that this is done so that medication dispensed would be monitored and people should not go to different hospitals to get the same medication. Instead of dealing with the theft of huge consignment of drugs, government decided to deal with one person, who had stolen a few drugs at the expense of a great number of people who were turned back.

But nothing was done to deal with those stealing large consignments. In my opinion, this was to say let thousands suffer for one person who decided to steal a few drugs. The thousands who are turned back because they do not carry a card or turned back because drugs were stolen were not a priority.


Just after that we were told that there is a shortage of drugs. People were told to go and buy them from pharmacies and the question was where will the elderly get money for drugs as the very same government is the one giving them peanuts for their survival. A lot was said about the lack of money for drugs but it never convinced as we see that money for certain things like the construction of hotels and roads is there. The only money lacking is the money to assist the needy citizens of this country.


That situation was, however, better because the Ministry of Health came out to acknowledge that there was a problem and all efforts were directed at salvaging the situation. Now we have the same problem, and lo and behold, government is denying that there is a problem in hospitals. The chief pharmacist had the audacity to tell the country that there is no drug crisis. What worries me though is that we have people confirming that they turned back because of a lack of medication.

Why is the ministry not dealing with the nurses and doctors who turn back patients without medication if there is medication in hospitals? To me that indicates that the medical personnel is telling the truth and government is trying to cover up the crisis thus putting the nation’s lives at risk. Am I wrong minister to assume that you don’t want to come out clear on the position because it is your ministry that messed up?

Can I refer you minister to Section 60 (8) of the Constitution which calls upon the State to take all practical measures to ensure the provision of basic healthcare services to the population. Medication is one of those and you are failing to do that.
Look at the captain of Cabinet, the prime minister; every year we are told that he went to South Africa for medical check-up but that is not the case with the ordinary people whom he is leading. His health is important but not that of the people. How many government officials have been rushed to South Africa for treatment yet ordinary people die every day because their lives are not important.


The chief pharmacist denied that there is a crisis but she mentioned that there is a shortage of some drugs. She told us that there were substitutes. In my opinion, most of the time the substitutes are usually not the best and only come in when the best is not there. Why is government risking the lives Swazis with substitutes?

We are also told by medical practitioners (and I think the chief pharmacist is one) that some drugs have side effects and one should be tested before the drugs are prescribed and I wonder if she expects that the tests would have been done on the patients before they are provided with the drugs? To me this is clear that Swazis are just sacrificial lambs in the eyes of government.  

Comments (0 posted):

Post your comment comment

Please enter the code you see in the image: