MBOMBELA – There is a general shortage of medicine in Mpumalanga, according to the Stop Stocks out Project (SSP), a civil society watchdog supported by the Treatment Action Campaign (Tac), Medecins Sans Frontieres, the Advocacy Project and Section 27.
A report by the SSP found that in 2014, 205 facilities participated in the stock-outs survey in Mpumalanga over six weeks, from October 1. Forty per cent of these had reported a shortage of specifically antiretroviral and tuberculosis (TB) medication, making it the most affected province in the country.
According to the information gleaned from patients and health-care workers, “there has been a recent spike in stock outs of medication in the Mpumalanga province which are having a severe impact on patients”.
In Nkangala, 44 per cent of facilities reported stock outs, in Gert Sibande, the district in the country with the second-highest prevalence of HIV/Aids, 41 per cent reported stock outs and in Ehlanzeni 36 per cent reported stock outs of HIV and TB medication in the reported period.
To discuss this, Mr Linda Mavuso, provincial coordinator of the Tac, Mr Sibusiso Masiteng, provincial chairman and Mr Sifiso Nkala, researcher met with the head of the health department, Mr Aggrey Morake on Wednesday of last week.
Nkala says HIV, TB and hypertension medication in particular are running low and there are also challenges regarding vaccinations and immunisations.
“It is ideal to give each patient a three-month supply, so that they don’t have to return to the clinic every month. My worry is that the taxes we pay are misused. Patients are denied dignity and the right to treatment and health-care services. Eighty per cent of the population don’t have medical aid. If there is no medication, what must be done?”
In 2013 the South African Human Rights Commission discovered that the department had a shortage of equipment and staff to diagnose and treat patients. It gave the department until March last year to come up with a “well-coordinated programme aimed at dealing with and addressing” the infrastructural, administrative and other challenges.
Following the meeting with Morake, Mavuso said the department had undertaken to present them with their action plan later in May.
Spokesman for Health, Mr Dumisani Malamule, said it stood by its earlier statement that there were indeed medication in clinics.
“There are some minor cases where there are some medications not available but alternative drugs are being supplied. Hence our managers in various health facilities meet constantly to discuss medication shortages.”
- Mpumalanga premier Mr David Mabuza also wants more from healthcare. Read it here.
