Broken computers could lead to medicine shortages
All state-owned facilities in Gauteng will be affected.
GAUTENG’S shadow minister for health and member of the provincial legislature said this week there is likely to be medicine shortages at Gauteng state-owned hospitals and clinics.
In a media statement released on February 5, Jack Bloom said the shortage will be due to the failure of a computer at the Auckland Park Medical Supplies Depot, which serves all health facilities that fall under the Gauteng health department.
Bloom said the computer server for the Medsas ordering system and drug supply system at the depot has been down for more than a week and efforts to repair it have not been successful.
“Hospital pharmacies have been able to cope by using backup stock or by doing ordering items manually, but this is not sustainable and medicine shortages will occur if computerised ordering is not restored soon,” Bloom said.
He said this is a dire threat to medicine supplies, which the Department needs to attend to urgently.
