NOMSA SHONGWE, Nelspruit | Thursday 2.45pm.
THE Mpumalanga health department says up to 20% of its medicines for hospitals and clinics are being stolen and resold by corrupt officials.
Health spokesman George Mohlamonyane said government is uncertain exactly how the medicine is being stolen, because it is delivered to clinics and hospitals by commercial companies.
“We have so far lost about R17 million of our budgeted R91 million for medication to theft,” he said.
Mohlamonyane said no one had been arrested yet but confirmed that the rampant theft had left large provincial hospitals such as the one in Standerton short of medicines for up to three years. He also said the department had decided to call in private detectives to investigate the thefts throughout the province.
Standerton hospital superintendent Dr Ekkart Oosterhuis said there is a constant shortage of drugs for treating high blood pressure, painful joints, headaches, and other illnesses.
Mohlamonyane said: “We’ve heard that some people sell medicines in the townships while people are turned away from clinics because there is no medicine.” He insisted there would be arrests soon but was unable to say why it had taken the province so long to tackle the thefts. –African Eye News Service