The Democratic Alliance (DA) has called on the Northern Cape MEC of Health to urgently intervene in an unfolding pharmaceutical crisis caused by a licensing bungle by the provincial department.
The situation sees the well-stocked pharmaceutical depot in Kimberley unable to distribute medicine to government facilities across all districts. This is because, without a valid license, it is not meant to be in possession of stock and therefore cannot load stock onto its system, nor may it sign out and distribute stock to other facilities. This is causing stock outs of essential medicines at health facilities and placing patients at risk of defaulting on chronic medication, with serious repercussions for their health.
The situation is believed to stem from the health department’s failure to renew its pharmaceutical depot license. There is no indication of how long it will take to resolve the matter.
Medicine stock-outs in the Northern Cape are nothing new but have generally been caused by the department’s failure to pay its suppliers. The failure by the department to timeously renew its license is an unparalleled failure by the department, with non-compliance to pharmaceutical regulations risking the department from having its depot license revoked.
I have written to the MEC to demand an immediate intervention to resolve this matter and to ask that the relevant senior manager responsible for this medicine fiasco is held accountable.
The DA has also submitted parliamentary questions for written reply to the MEC, on the availability of pharmaceuticals and renovations to the Provincial Medical Depot. In particular, we want to know at which facilities medicine shortages are being experienced, what medicines from the Essential Drug List are absent and what the specific cause of the various shortages is.
The health of patients cannot be held hostage by poor administration. Everyone deserves access to medical treatment that can save or improve the quality of their life.