BY DELISA THWALA
MBABANE – The Ministry of Health, through the Central Medical Stores (CMS), delivered some medical drugs and supplies to the Mbabane Government Hospital yesterday.
The delivered drugs and supplies were some of those that were requested by the facility. The delivery does not suggest that all the drugs that were reported to be out of stock are now available.
Some of the supplied medicine included basic medical supplies such as gloves, scrubs, masks, medication, which included injectable, painkillers and flu medication, among others.
Acting Director of Health Services Dr. Velephi Okello confirmed the delivery. She disputed that there had been no deliveries of medical drugs and supplies at all to public health facilities.
She noted that the ongoing shortage of medical drugs and supplies in the country had made some people believe that the government was not delivering any medication to health facilities at all.
Worth noting is that most health facilities experienced a shortage of medical drugs, which led to protests by medical practitioners, where they petitioned the Ministry of Health, demanding the supply of adequate medical drugs.
Over 50 medical drugs were said to be out of stock and among those were diabetes drugs, insulin in particular.
Dr Okello said there were deliveries of some medical drugs and equipment conducted by the CMS to the local facilities.
She said it was a pity that with the shortage of some of these supplies, people were sold a deadly narrative, which insinuated that the country was out of all medical drugs and supplies.
“Drugs are constantly delivered to hospitals and clinics,” she said.
Dr. Okello further highlighted that some of the delivered drugs depended on the requests made by that particular health facility. She noted that some facilities had more medical drugs, caused by the frequency of the request from that facility and the availability of those particular drugs at the CMS.
The acting director said the demand for medical drugs also played a huge role in availability.
“Sometimes, deliveries find a huge demand, which leads to the drugs being depleted quickly,” she said.
Further, Dr Okello assured that they constantly supplied drugs while she acknowledged the shortage of some medical drugs such as insulin, which she said had not been delivered due to supplier challenges.
