MEDICINE SHORTAGE AT HELEN JOSEPH HOSPITAL

Many patients, including pensioners, have to buy medicines at a private pharmacy because the Helen Joseph Hospital in west Johannesburg is short of certain medicines.

In one case this week, a 76-year-old pensioner was told they did not have her blood pressure and water tablets, and she was given a script to buy it herself, which cost her more than R200.

A pharmacist in Newclare regularly sells medicine to patients with scripts from the Helen Joseph Hospital.

This is an outrageous situation.

In December last year, the Gauteng Health Department said that only 77% of medicines on the Essential Drug List were available, but special measures would be taken to procure medicine.

There has been some improvement, but I still get complaints about medicine shortages at various hospitals.

The underlying problem is the non-payment of certain suppliers and a botched national medicine tender.

Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu needs to acknowledge that there is still a problem with the supply of certain drugs, and extra measures must be taken urgently to procure them.

Statement issued by Jack Bloom MPL, DA Gauteng Shadow Health MEC, January 29 2015

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