Four North West health managers suspended

FOUR North West Health Department managers have been suspended after expired medication was found at the medical depot.

“The purpose of the precautionary suspension is to make sure that the managers’ presence at work does not hinder the investigation. The concerned managers are therefore placed on precautionary suspension with immediate effect,” said department spokesperson Tebogo Lekgethwane.

He said two managers were from the medical depot and other two were from the provincial office in Mahikeng.

The allegations against the managers include, among others, dereliction of duty in failing to make time outs payments to service providers and alleged unfair labour practices.

“The investigation will cover failure to disclose or report on the existence of the storage room that houses expired medication at the depot and failure to disclose or report on the availability of expired medication at the depot.

“Furthermore, the investigation will look into possible failure to set up systems for managing pharmaceutical services, failure to set up systems for timely payments to the pharmaceutical service providers and failure to correct disparities in salaries of the depot staff despite staff members performing same responsibilities,” he said.

Reporting on disposal of expired medication and monitoring stock levels are being implemented Tebogo Lekgethwane Health Department spokesperson

Lekgethwane said the department was working on plans to avoid future occurrence of similar challenges at the medical depot.

“A system of reporting on disposal of expired medication and proper monitoring of stock levels is being implemented.

“As part of intervention by the Section 100 1b administration, a Swat Team from NGOs who work in the area of pharmaceutical services has been brought in to attend to the weaknesses in this area,” he said.

He said a plan to improve delivery timelines and turnaround was also in place.

“It involves direct deliveries of medication to hospitals while the medical depot will now deliver directly to clinics.

“Medicine availability in health facilities has increased substantially since the administration took control of the department,” Lekgethwane said.