WINDHOEK – The Ministry of Health and Social Services has assured the public that it has enough medicines, medical items and other pharmaceuticals at all pharmacies at state hospitals and at its medical centres.
Ester Paulus the spokeswoman of the ministry says the stock level at the Central Medical Stores (CMS) stood at 90 percent towards the end of August, calculated by the ministry’s computer system that measures the difference between ideal CMS minimum stock requirements and the actual stock levels in the CMS.
Vice-chairperson of the National Council Margaret Mensah-Williams last week said the country’s public hospitals face a serious shortage of medicines and other pharmaceuticals. She made reference to a letter addressed to directors of health and chief medical officers informing them about the status of the pharmaceutical stock at a certain district pharmacy.
But, Paulus rejected Mensah-Williams’ statement and requested her or anyone in possession of the said letter to provide it to the ministry, so that the allegations can be investigated in order to provide a clear response. She says the ministry is implementing measures to curb over-expenditure and recently changed its procurement system insofar as it relates to making purchases outside the CMS. In the past hospitals could order their own emergency medicines, a practice terminated by the ministry due to the introduction of the new centralized procurement system. In line with the Primary Health Care approach adopted by the ministry at independence for the provision of essential medicines, the first main policy decision within the pharmaceutical sector was the adoption of the essential medicines concept, which is aimed at ensuring sustainable availability and accessibility of needed medicines by rationalising procurement, distribution and prescription.
As a result the first Namibia Essential Medicines List (Nemlist, previously called the Nedlist) was launched in May 1995 with subsequent revisions over the years and the Nemlist has continued to serve as an important guideline for procurement of medicines for the public sector and use by health workers at all levels of the health care system. The selection of medicines to be included in Nemlist, as well as procedures to follow in keeping this list up to date is done in accordance with the National Medicine Policy, which was launched in 1998. Medicines on the Nemlist are selected by means of epidemiological data of common illnesses in the public health system and according to the historic trends of illnesses.
According to Paulus a committee comprising specialists, doctors and pharmacists is responsible for compiling and ultimately producing the Nemlist and frequently reviews it, removing and replacing medicines to ensure that they are the most appropriate at any given time. She says the shortage of 11 percent of items in the CMS might have been caused by suppliers failing to deliver on time; the delivery of wrong products that were rejected by the CMS; items that are very difficult to source from suppliers, and items discontinued but that still remain on the CMS system, but cannot be procured because the hospitals are yet to give the go-ahead to purchase them.