WINDHOEK – The shortage of medicine in state hospitals and clinics in various parts of the country has become a ‘normality’ and it is no longer ‘news’, according to medical sources.
A medical source based at Walvis Bay hospital said there is a constant shortage of critical medicines such as antibiotics.
A heart patient at Keetmanshoop told New Era he was forced to buy prescribed pricey medicine at a private pharmacy because the hospital pharmacy did not have the prescribed medicine in stock.
A source in the Katutura hospital said “we are not experiencing that much of a shortage. Sometimes we have alternatives. Our patients’ ARVs are okay. But it (the information) still needs to be verified.”
When contacted for comment last week and early this week on the state of supply of medicines in state hospitals the public relations officer in the Ministry of Health and Social Services, Ester Paulus, told New Era the ministry would not comment “on that and other controversial matters because it is election year”.
However, in response to an article in a weekly newspaper on the critical shortage of medicines in state hospitals, the Ministry of Health and Social Services issued a press release.
The Namibian Essential Medicines List (Nemlist) makes provision to procure two equally effective medications apart from the recommended main medicine to treat a certain ailment.
“Some health officials have regularly been prescribing medicines not on the Nemlist. This is only allowed in the most necessary situation hence the need to cease this practice,” she stated.
“All public health facilities have been fully stocked with ARVs while special conditions are taken care of at health facility level and at times through the central medical store,” Paulus further stated.