UTH DRUGS CRISIS

THE Daily Nation did not lie about the lack of medicine at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) and instead of defending wrong including poor management and monitoring system, the ministry of Health should find out why people are complaining about drugs not being availed to patients.

It is the UTH which should explain why it sends away patients with prescriptions to go and buy medicines which it has. That is the scandal. Why are poor Zambians being subjected to unnecessary suffering when medicine is there.

Who benefits from sending patients to private pharmacies for medicine that is, now we told, readily available at UTH.

Some of the patients that the Daily Nation team interviewed showed us the prescriptions that they were given because the hospital did not have needed drugs.

It is shocking that the national referral hospital is well-stocked with drugs, but patients are advised to buy medicines in private outlets under the pretext that there is a shortage.

This whole scenario smacks of a scandal that requires thorough investigation.

This is the riddle that the ministry should work out and explain to the nation. There is no point in denying or indeed information that is in public domain and anyone accessing health facilities at the largest referral hospital has encountered a similar roadblock when it comes to getting prescription medicine.

The Permanent Secretary, Dr Kennedy Malama, should actually spend time at the hospital without cameras and talk to real people with real problems who are being subjected to suffering, which now turns out to be unnecessary since the hospital does have medicine after all. The drugs are there in the pharmacies but for some reason, not every patients gets the drugs needed but are instead directed to go and buy from private pharmacies. So where do the drugs go?

It is our view that the University Teaching Hospital must come up with a well-crafted drug dispensing system to ensure patients get the required treatment timely and also to curb exploitation.

Yes, it is a scandal for any medical worker to refer patients to private pharmacies to buy essential antibiotics such as amoxicillin and gentamicin when the largest health institution has all the medicines.

UTH conducts surgical operations and other medical procedures of varying degrees, hence availability of antibiotics and other medical requirements is always a must.

Medical Stores Limited has been supplying drugs to all health institutions consistently and it comes as a surprise that UTH has been holding essential drugs, denying the patients timely treatment.

One of the reasons could be that there is high level of pilfering of drugs within the system.

The other reason could be poor management of pharmaceutical functions spanning from procurement, storage to dispensing.

It is surprising that the hospital has bulk store of drugs while at the point of dispensing at the pharmacy patients are being turned away.

Why were they holding the drugs?

The impact has obviously been devastating.

There are numerous patients lying in the wards without being given the necessary drugs, yet the essentials are available.

Even for those who could afford, there is a lapse from the time the drugs are prescribed to the time of purchase and consumption.

As a consequence, infections get worse because of the late administration of drugs as patients or their relatives search elsewhere for medicines. This is a scandal.

The fact that Dr Malama, who is controlling officer in the ministry, personally conducted a spot check is manifestation enough that there is certainly something amiss.

It will be prudent to extend the probe to other health institutions in all parts of the country and most likely the outcome will be akin.

This cancer must be brought to an immediate end.

It is sad that while Government is working hard to ensure universal health coverage is provided, some destructive elements in the health system are pulling the rope in the opposite direction.

All processes in the system must be looked at critically to trace the problem and ultimately weed out erring personnel.

It is costly to run a free national health system, hence the decision by Government to establish the National Health Insurance Scheme.

This will enable high quality and wider access to health services by citizens.

While this is being done, it is important for medical personnel to remain ethical and desist from exploiting desperate patients in public institutions.

A good number of Zambians understand that health is a universal human right, but may not have time and energy to start challenging unethical medical personnel.

Hence, they would rather rush to private institutions to buy essential drugs and quickly start medication.

Workers in public institutions should not take advantage of desperate patients, but must offer selfless service as stipulated in the code of conduct.