By Walusungu Lundu
WHILE adding his voice to the growing debate of drug shortages in hospitals, Chishimba Kambwili has described the last seven months of the UPND government in power as a disaster.
The PF presidential hopeful said there is need for the new dawn administration to be sincere over the issue of drug shortages and accept failure.
Kambwili bemoaned that uncoordinated statements on the matter from the Ministry of Health, government spokesperson and State House.
“It is said that extraordinary circumstances call for extraordinary decisions and efforts. I have been following the issue of drug supply to our hospitals and all health facilities. And I must say, I think we need to be told the truth about the procurement of drugs. What we have been treated to as Zambians is what I can call comedy of errors,” he said. “I mean when you look at statements coming from chief government spokesperson [Chushi Kasanda], the Ministry [of Health] and State House, are all uncoordinated.”
Kambwili said the statement from Kasanda that the government had funded hospitals enough to buy medicine implies that the procurement policy has changed.
“We were told by Hon Chushi Kasanda, Minister of Information and Media, that government had funded hospitals enough for them to procure drugs. Meaning therefore, that the policy has shifted or the policy has changed because the policy that I know and that we left is that government procures drugs through ZAMMSA (Zambia Medicines and Medical Supply Agency). And ZAMMSA distributes these drugs to hospitals. But for the minister to say that we have funded hospitals…it was enough money for them to procure drugs implies that the policy has changed. But nobody has ever told us that the policy has changed,” he said. “And if the policy has changed to that direction, I can outright say that it is the beginning of failure to run health institutions in as far as drugs are concerned. Buying of drugs is one of the biggest expenditure that this government undertakes. And I don’t think individual hospitals will manage to procure drugs. Four days later after the minister issued the statement, we saw the President [Hakainde Hichilema] going to ZAMMSA and issued a statement and directives that the shortage of drugs must come to an end. We don’t need the President for heaven’s sake to visit ZAMMSA. The President can give directives right from State House. For me, the President going to ZAMMSA to put up an appearance is cheap politicking which we don’t want. Zambians rejected cheap politicking in the last general elections and I don’t think we should be treated to another cheap kind of politicking.”
Last Thursday, President Hichilema made a spontaneous visit to the Ministry of Health, and not ZAMMSA, to discuss the recruitment of health staff and the issue of drug shortages.
He said described drug shortages as a legacy issue.
“They are legacy issues. We all know that the country was not run well. We know that. Instead of fighting this fact, we must accept and start from there. So they are legacy issues of maybe amounts owed to suppliers…there are legacy issues in the fuel [sector], you know that, of unpaid debt. What we are doing is unblocking these legacy issues. But at the same time making sure that going forward, we don’t create new inefficiencies in the way we run sectors, health being one. But also we make sure that we stop being wasteful. We must save money. We must be prudent. And when drugs are bought, they must reach the intended user. It’s a myriad of things that the ministry has been working on. And we as a country, as a new administration, these are issues that we must work together as teams on different ministries, in different locations across the country. The good news is that talking to provincial medical officers, they all confirmed that the flow of funds to hospitals is working well than ever before,” said President Hichilema.
“I think that they confirmed that there’s consistency and that we will be able to combine central supply of drugs plus on-the-spot purchases when those purchases are needed to close the gap, when a particular drug is not available from the floor, at the centre. You know we have a new leadership at ZAMMSA, the former Medical Stores. We are reorganizing. I’m very pleased with the interaction with the new leadership at ZAMMSA. I’m pleased that change is coming there, in line with our objective to clean up the system to make sure that we are efficient – drugs are available…But the stop gap measure is that the funding that was not available in the past is now available. But the utilisation, the consumption, of these drugs at the centre – the clinic, the hospital, must match with the buying processes. In the past it wasn’t matching.”
And Kambwili charged that the shortage of drugs being experienced in currently is unprecedented.
He added that it was unprecedented that six months of the new government in office, no drugs had been procured for the hospitals “and there is a critical shortage of drugs including Panadol in almost all health facilities across Zambia.”
Kambwili said parading of the media “to start and take pictures of shelves at ZAMMSA will not bring medicines to the hospitals”.
“Hon Minister of Health, Hon [Sylvia] Masebo also issued a statement to the fact that they procured drugs and that the shortages will now be a thing of the past. One of the reasons Zambians voted for UPND was that they were going to end the shortages of drugs. Alas, the last seven months has been a disaster and we should accept failure,” he said.
“He he who does not know that he knows not and knows not that he knows not is a fool forever. If you cannot notice your own mistakes, if you cannot see your own mistakes, it simply means that you will not change for the better. But when you accept…’country men and women, we are sorry for this shortage, the reason why there was a shortage is A B C’, the people will take you seriously. But to try and create an impression that all is well by going to parade cameras at ZAMMSA will not help anybody. I want to urge the new government that we don’t want you to fail. We are asking you to be serious over this issue of procurement of drugs. And we want a concrete statement stating where there have been shortages of drugs in hospitals so that we can end these speculations.”
Kambwili said people have seen statements without action.
He said there was need for people to be shown the flagging off of medicines in hospitals as it has always been done in the past.
“All we were shown was medicine being offloaded from one truck being taken on the shelves at medical stores (ZAMMSA) and say that the issue of shortage of drugs has come to an end. I have checked, through our operatives, through our party functionaries, in almost all the provinces, not even one institution has received drugs as alluded to by minister and the President,” said Kambwili.
“Country men and women, this issue of drugs is serious and it must be sorted out like yesterday. We want to see trucks delivering medicine to the provincial hubs and also to the individual hospitals. Let us not pretend that all is well. We don’t want this government to fail because if you fail in the delivery of medicines, a lot of people are going to lose their lives.
Therefore, I personally, and I think the PF, we don’t wish for this government to fail. We would want this government to succeed and our role is to play checks and balances. I have been quite on a number of national issues but I think this issue of drugs is getting out of hand and it must be sorted out.”