An artificial shortage of drugs in some clinics on the Copperbelt has irked Minister of Health Jonas Chanda who has since directed the Medical Stores Limited to ensure a steady supply.
And the Health Minister has observed that some hospitals were unable to conduct clinical Chemistry and Hematology tests due to a lack of supply of laboratory reagents.
This came to light when Dr. Chanda toured some health facilities and the Copperbelt Regional Medical hub in Luanshya district.
Dr. Chanda wondered why some basic drugs in some clinics in Kitwe, Ndola, and Luanshya districts were in short supply when the regional medical hub was fully stocked.
“I want to know why some facilities I have visited have no drugs, for example when I visited Kitwe on Sunday, patients from clinics were flocking to Kitwe central hospital with the handwritten prescription of basic drugs such as Panadol and Amoxil, when we have full stock from Medical stores limited, we can’t have people flocking to tertiary hospitals for basic drugs that can be acquired from local clinics” he noted.
Dr Chanda questioned why some facilities like Roan General hospital in Luanshya only had a medical supply level of two weeks instead of six months, the situation he said would result in shortages if not well managed.
“The Copperbelt is very cardinal and it has a high population, therefore there is a need for medical stores to meet the supply chain by ensuring that hospitals have the needed supply levels, if we can’t meet the supply we should therefore engage medical stores in Lusaka to increase the supply as there is no shortage of drugs in the country,” he added.
The Minister of Health further indicated that hospitals in Luanshya were unable to conduct chemistry and Hematology tests due to a lack of laboratory reagents, which was compromising the quality of health service delivery.
Mr. Chanda questioned how hospitals were able to start people on Anti-Retroviral Treatment without conducting renal and liver functions due to lack of reagents.
He has since directed medical stores to ensure a steady supply of reagents and stock compromising of the service delivered.
And Copperbelt Province Biomedical Director in charge of laboratories Ngungu Nyoni said the region had a total of 82 laboratories and that the supply by medical stores did not meet the demand.
Mr. Nyoni said the reagent supply which is done once monthly leaves small health facilities without supply as big health institutions were given priority.
And Copperbelt Regional Medical Hub General Manager Mathews Fwambo said the hub was fully stocked and that it supplied drugs to hospitals once a month.
Mr. Fwambo said once the hub received stocks from Medical stores they information hospitals who make their orders and are supplied monthly.
“We further provide hospitals with our stock status weekly, from there they are able to see our stick and in turn make their orders and we deliver,” he said
Meanwhile, Dr Chanda has directed Medical Stores Limited to work closely with the Zambia Medicines Regulatory Authority to eliminate the trend of recalling medicines in circulation.
Mr. Chanda has since directed ZAMRA and Medical stores to compile a report on all recalled medicines last year.
He said the two bodies should work together closely to check the quality and state of drugs before they were circulated.
The Health Minister is on the Copperbelt province on a familiarization tour of health facilities following his appointment.
Hope it will be a steady supply of non expired drugs…
Shortage of drugs ,shortage of foreign exchange ,shortage of positive economic statistics since 2015…PF has been a destructive party at the helm.
There is no artificial shortage of drugs, you do not have drugs. Stop telling lies.
When did you start stoking drugs?
It seems he’s fitting in very well. This is a typical demonstration that no one is indispensable. Just like some cadres that are comfortable with the wanton looting of State coffers through inflated tenders are arguing that only ECL can take Zambia to the next level, we’ve told them that their godfather isn’t eligible and we’ll ensure that he isn’t on the ballot. Insansa kuchinjanya, you’ve eaten if you were not saving that’s your problem. It’s time to move on. Edgar can’t take us anywhere, we have seen his best which unfortunately isn’t good enough. He can go back to Klub Mulamu where they used to drink 4 crates of castle in one night with a kilo of pork and 500g of salt and boast the following day ati chalilila
Dr Chanda, we welcome your vigorous approach to correct the hidden sins in the Health sector. We’ve a lot of saboteurs in our system with the aim of bringing down this Government. Things must change for the best in this Ministry. Your track record since you joined Cabinet is excellent and selfless. Your short stay at Water was excellent, you brought the relevance of the Ministry’s existence back on the people’s minds. Basic drugs such as Panadol, Amoxil etc sure, our mothers have to travel 10 or more kilometers to get it at a referral hospital? That’s very shameful. However mere talk will not correct the situation may be a rod this time. What is the DMMB doing? Being paid for sleeping in their Offices? Please Hon Minister correct things and let the citizens begin to appreciate the PF…
This smells of upnds evil hands. They create superficial shortages to make government seem incompetent but our people know these evil schemes
If you do not correct the situation asap, have the decency to resign. Someone did comment that you have a clean slate. We are rooting for you, prove us wrong, bwana Minister!
You can imagine someone is at Mpongwe Mission Hospital then he’s a prescription for pen-V and Panadol. He’ll pay K60 to get to Luanshya to buy medicines worthy K20! This is what corruption and unpatriotism is costing the nation. We talked about all these things but Edgar never wanted to listen. Now even nurses want to work in procurement and pharmacy because that’s where there’s sweet. People won’t honor because of how much you stole, look at Hichilema. Sins of his youth have caused him the Presidency
The question is why the ministry does not have independent unbiased auditors to do this? This is where Zambia goes wrong, the whole minister doing checks, where are the minions on the ground????
Is it only now that the honourable has discovered what hell Zambians go through in State hospitals? We have told you people again and again that you live in a parallel universe in Zambia. Most of you are so rich that you see doctors privately and get whatever you ask for. You have been flown to India and South Africa at taxpayers’ expense when you have been sick. Now you are building new clinics and refurbishing old ones but they are whitewashed tombs. Maina Soko hospital, Levy Mwanawasa, UTH etc are killing fields. Once in a year they separate Siamese twins and the whole country goes gaga but people are dying of just ordinary malaria. The Cancer hospital has a very poor survival rate. Wake up and give the doctors the wherewithal to do good.