The health ministry has announced that more than one million ordinary health passports were at the general stores in Windhoek by the end of July, and that health facilities should submit their orders.

Health executive director Ben Nangombe said the ministry is also procuring additional health passports.

His announcement follows claims by the Popular Democratic Movement Elders’ Council on Tuesday that health matters in Namibia have become impractical as citizens are now being referred to local shops to buy books to replace their old health passports when they are full.

Meundju Jahanika, the wing’s acting secretary general, said in a statement that for the past three years, there has also been a shortage of medicine, mostly in the rural areas of Otjinene and other parts of the country, a situation he said is concerning. He added that elderly people face major problems because they travel from areas outside
town to get treatment.

“When it is their time to be attended to, they are being told to go to some private pharmacy to buy medicine. Therefore, it does not work most of the time. They need to pay for expensive medicine. The issue of the shortage of medicine is due to the mismanagement of funds and delivery of medicine. The elders are being affected financially, as they must now travel long distances from their areas to clinics and back to their villages,” Jahanika stressed.

He called on the government to allocate funds for the health ministry to “marshal back the old health system”, and to build big storerooms for stock-keeping.

- Nampa