Tackling drugs shortage
Team set up to deal with crisis crippling clinics in Limpopo
A technical team comprising members of the national and Limpopo departments of health, as well as the provincial treasury, has been established to deal with drugs shortages in the province.
The announcement yesterday followed reports of several clinics running short of prescribed medicines.
A new system called GCommerce in the province’s pharmaceutical depot plunged the province into chaos when clinics could not get ordered drugs, leaving frustrated patients queuing at health facilities for weeks.
Health minister Aaron Motsoaledi said the team will work hand-in-hand on the problem and would brief him and health MEC Phophi Ramathuba on their progress on a regular basis.
Motsoaledi said the G-Commerce system can work anywhere in the country.
He said they had met with the provincial leadership and resolved to continue with the system and that whatever challenges encountered would be dealt with.
“The system can’t be done away with, we will have to make it work,” Motsoaledi said.
“There is a shortage of medicine in the country, in fact the whole world, because China has closed a factory for environmental reasons.”
Speaking alongside Motsoaledi in Polokwane, Ramathuba said she never declared the crisis a “disaster”.
“I didn’t declare a disaster, it is the media who said it. I said if the problem persists we are heading for a disaster,” she said.
The system can’t be done away with