MBOMBELA – The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has received no plan from the provincial Department of Health on how it would prevent running out of crucial HIV and TB medication.
Lowvelder reported in April that the TAC staged a sit-in at the office of the Mpumalanga health department head, Dr Aggrey Morake.
A report by the civil society watchdog Stop Stocks-out Project had found that 20 per cent of the 205 facilities which participated in the stock survey in Mpumalanga over six weeks in 2014 had reported shortages of antiretroviral and tuberculosis.
According to the report, patients and health-care workers had reported a severe impact on patients.
Mr Linda Mavuso, provincial coordinator of TAC, said the department had undertaken to present them with their action to prevent running out of stock by the end of May. He confirmed this week that none had been received.
The MEC for health, Mr Gillion Mashego has denied that there were medication shortages in Mpumalanga’s clinics.
In May the minister of health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi reportedly blamed shortages of essential medicines at state hospitals and clinics on suppliers.
“What the national department and what the HOD says are two different things,” Mavuso says.
He indicated that TAC intended to hold community dialogues to collect testimonials from patients as well as create a platform for community members to engage with the non-profit organisation on the effects of treatment stockouts in their daily lives. The aim is for the meetings to also serve as a platform for TAC to meet with stakeholders such as the Department of Health, to try and find a way towards eliminating stockouts.
“The department is denying the fact that some facilities are struggling,” Mavuso concluded.
Spokesman for health, Mr Dumisani Malamule didn’t respond to the newspaper’s questions.
