E236M WON’T FULLY ADDRESS SD HEALTH CRISIS – SWADNU

MBABANE – Means to pay the suppliers are being made, but the medical woes still seem far from being over.

This is what Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU) President Bheki Mamba fears could be the case in the crisis faced by the health sector in the country.
In an interview, Mamba said the drug shortage issue in the country’s health centres was handled by the Ministry of Health as per the directive of Parliament.

The president said the Parliament had ordered the Minister of Health, Sibongile Simelane, to pay the suppliers and subsequently have drugs available at hospitals in seven days.  He mentioned that since the ministry also depended on funds given by the Ministry of Finance, it was still not known when the balance would be paid.

Mamba stated that it had been communicated to SWADNU that government was able to pay half of the over E400 million debt to the suppliers. This leaves a remaining balance of E236 million. Until the debt is paid in full, Mamba said the situation in hospitals remained extremely bad due to the deficiency of drugs.

However, Mamba said the E236 million only covers for drugs, but not clinical supplies. He described drugs as  medicine supplies and other equipment needed to administer injections and other necessities. The union leader said this still meant that at some point there would be drugs and vaccines available but not the syringes and cotton wool pertinent when injecting a patient, for instance.

“The fact that the E236 million only covers the drugs, it means that there would still be a problem of shortage of supplies like syringes and cotton wool, needed to administer injections. The problem will still stand because if we cannot inject patients it means they would still not get the service they need from the country’s health institutions,” he said. When sought for comment, Minister Simelane said she could not comment on the matter, but referred the Times to the minister of Finance.

Finance Minister Martin Dlamini confirmed that E200 million had been paid and only E236 million remained as the balance.“I am currently out of the country, but when I left, besekuvele kusetjentwa. E200 million has already been paid and only about E230 million is remaining,” he said.

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