WINDHOEK – The Vice Chairperson of the National Council Margaret Mensah-Williams dropped a bombshell in the National Council yesterday morning, when she said many of the country’s public hospitals face a serious shortage of medicines and other pharmaceuticals.
The revelation by the outspoken and activist parliamentarian contradicts an earlier response by the Ministry of Health and Social Services rejecting media reports that public hospitals had run out of medicines and other vital items. Mensah-Williams backed up her statements in the lower house of parliament yesterday with a letter addressed to the Directors of Health and Chief Medical Officers informing them about the status of the pharmaceutical stock at a certain district pharmacy. She later allowed journalists to peruse part of the letter. “We tried our outmost best to borrow from other facilities which might have some in stock and managed to get a few items that only lasted for a week.
On the list are a lot of vital items. Unfortunately our hands are cut off at the pharmacy,” reads part of the letter. Mensah-Williams says she was requested by concerned members of the public to raise the issue in parliament so that government takes it up as a matter of urgency. She urged the Ministry of Health and Social Services to give urgent attention to the problem, in order to protect people’s lives, arguing that she was reliably informed that the problem is not about lack of funds to buy medicines but the way the Central Medical Store is managed. “People should decentralize things, this is because the function is centralized, it is in Windhoek, everything happens in Windhoek and people in the regions are suffering,” she argued.
Mensah-Williams refused to divulge the whole contents of the letter, saying she needed to protect her sources. The letter was written after a certain district hospital requested medicines and other medical supplies such as syringes, oxygen masks, razor blades and urine bags among others. The letter states that most of the items on the list have been out of stock in the Central Medical Store since the beginning of the year. “I am not saying [these things] because I want to badmouth anybody, but this is in the interest of the people,” she said, telling reporters outside the chamber that she wanted to go and see the Head of State this week on the issue, but could not do so since President Hifikepunye Pohamba is currently in New York to attend the 68th United Nations General Assembly.
By Tonateni Shidhudhu