SWADNU SLAMS POLITICISATION OF CHALLENGES

MANZINI – “It is saddening that whenever we raise the shortage of drugs and that we’ve nothing to work with, it is politicised. There are just no drugs in hospitals!”

Secretary General (SG) of the Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU) Mayibongwe Masangane said the drug shortage in the country was no longer an issue that needed only lip service, but a time frame for government to deliver. In fact, he expressed no shock about the said amount of drugs in a stock-out in various public health facilities. Instead, Masangane supposed that there could be more drugs on stock-out.  “We’ve told government that patients are dying due to the shortage of drugs and requested them to do something,” he said. Masangane claimed that the stock-outs were mostly caused by the high volumes of short deliveries of medicines from the Central Medical Stores (CMS). He said various health facilities had placed orders for medication and it was either not delivered in time and or something not listed on the order was supplied.  He also bemoaned that there was seemingly incoherent systems of communication between health facilities and the CMS, which resulted in the inadequate monitoring of stock reorder levels.

Prescriptions

“After having paid clinic fees for the medication, many patients are asked to buy their prescriptions at retail pharmacies. This option is not affordable to the elderly with non-communicable diseases (NCDs) as they get grants that can’t sustain them, given the current cost of living,” Masangane said. He said what was disheartening to many nurses was that they had to turn back patients who travelled long distances to health facilities. The SG insisted that there should be three months buffer stock to ensure that the health facilities don’t run out of medication. Furthermore, Masangane said there was a shortage of pharmacists and pharm technicians in most clinics, which resulted in the failure to keep records of drugs in stock. He said as a union, they had received reports in various instances that there was a shortage of pharmacists and pharm technicians who could be responsible for keeping records of the stock in public health facilities.

The SG said pharmacists or pharm technicians were best equipped for the management and distribution of pharmaceuticals and their absence resulted in the responsibility being executed by nurses who were also expected to engage in their duties. “Government should hire more personnel as per the need in order to afford the citizenry adequate healthcare. If this is not solved, the shortage of medication and failure to render this service will persist,” Masangane said.

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