NO MEDICATION AT PSYCHIATRIC CENTRE, PATIENTS VIOLENT

MANZINI – Nurses are working in fear at the National Psychiatric Referral Hospital as there is no medication to treat psychotic illnesses.
The psychiatric centre is located at Two Sticks in Manzini.

According to aggrieved nurses, the institution has been without medication for quite some time and they were facing challenges as the patients had become violent towards them.

The nurses claimed that the patients had started beating them up when they were going about their duties. The nurses raised a concern that this had come about due to the lack of medication such as modecate and fluanxol injections.
Modecate is used to treat schizophrenia. It is thought to work by reducing dopamine (a chemical messenger) in certain areas of the brain while fluanxol is also used in the treatment of schizophrenia.

Brain

Fluanxol is thought to work by affecting nerve pathways in certain areas of the brain to help correct certain chemical imbalances that cause the symptoms of schizophrenia.
The sources said the medication had been out of stock for an extended period, which could be over two weeks. One of the sources said the medication was critical as it was given to psychotic patients who were enrolled for a longer period. 

The source said this brought about a challenge in that the patients were now defaulting and becoming more violent. “This is a challenge now as the patients are beating us while we are also being exposed to COVID -19 as the out-patients have to regularly come to seek tablets that will assist with their conditions,” the source said.

Bheki Mamba, President of the Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU), confirmed that there were challenges at the hospital. He said the lack of medication was not just unique to the National Psychiatric Hospital, but it was the same case in many facilities.

Episodes

Mamba said the violent episodes had been reported to his office. He said the challenge with the nurses at the psychiatric centre was that they dealt with psychotic patients.
“The nurses should be careful and if need be, move away from any possibility of danger,” Mamba said.

He said they had engaged government on the lack of medication and had been informed that there were fiscal challenges which were delaying the procurement of the medication.
Worth noting is that the country has been in a state of national emergency for about three months.
This resulted in a number of businesses ceasing to operate for over two months.

This is not the first time the hospital faces challenges as nurses let patients out after complaining about unfavourable working conditions.
Director of Health Services Dr Vusi Magagula said the ministry would investigate the allegations.
In terms of the shortage of medication, Magagula said the Ministry of Health would communicate through the right channels when the nurses should expect medication.

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