The Minister of Health has until close of business on Wednesday to respond to a letter of demand from the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), or face litigation.
The letter, sent on March 10, gave her seven days to authorise the immediate procurement of anti-retroviral drugs.
”(Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang) is failing to make use of regulations that clearly allow government to purchase an urgent interim supply of anti-retroviral pending the finalisation of the tender process,” said a TAC statement on Tuesday.
The TAC’s national executive committee (NEC) has passed a resolution authorising legal action compelling Tshabalala-Msimang to authorise procurement of this interim supply.
The TAC accused the health minister of preventing provincial governments from accessing funds expressly allocated for the purchase of anti-retroviral until the formal tender process was completed.
The TAC NEC had evaluated progress made on the government’s treatment plan, but decried the delay in starting the anti-retroviral treatment programme.
”We recognise and acknowledge the work that has been done at hospitals and clinics to prepare to treat people. We recognise the work of the national Department of Health in finalising protocols, training and education.
”But the delay in starting the programme and providing sick people with medicines is unacceptable and unnecessary. The TAC secretariat sent a letter of demand to Tshabalala-Msimang on March 10, giving her seven days to respond. If the TAC does not hear from her legal papers will be served.”
Although litigation was not its favoured course of action, the TAC said: ”Only the Minister can avoid court action”.
”By close of business on Wednesday, March 17, 2004, she must commit, in writing, to meeting the Constitutional rights to life, dignity and access to health-care services by authorising the urgent purchase of antiretroviral medicines and distributing them to clinics and hospitals accredited under the plan and ready to proceed.”
The TAC welcomed the announcement by the Gauteng health MEC Gwen Ramokgopa that antiretroviral treatment would begin for Aids sufferers at five hospitals from April 1.
”However, the announcement in Gauteng highlights again the need for urgency at a national level and in all other provinces. Six hundred people in South Africa die of Aids-related illnesses every day. Antiretroviral treatment can help people with HIV/Aids live longer, healthier lives.”
The Cabinet adopted a comprehensive HIV/Aids treatment plan last November.
One of its targets was to roll-out antiretroviral therapy to 53 000 people nationwide by March 31. Another was to make treatment available in at least one site in every district within 12 months, and at least one site in every local municipality within five years.
”Yet to date there are less than 2500 people on the programme countrywide — and nearly all of them are in the Western Cape. The national Department of Health has admitted that it will miss its target for the end of March.”
The TAC blamed Tshabalala-Msimang for this.
”(The) TAC believes the primary reason for the failure to meet this target is the Minister of Health’s lack of political will. Her justification for delaying treatment is that the tender process for antiretroviral medicines is not complete and therefore these medicines will only be available in the public health system by the end of June.”
Meanwhile, medical education and training programmes are to be amended to take into account government’s comprehensive HIV/Aids plan, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Tuesday.
”From yesterday until March 19, the department and the SA Qualifications Authority are co-hosting a workshop with the key stakeholders to review current unit standards while writing additional standards where required.”
This would ensure HIV and Aids training conformed to the National Qualifications Framework and used national unit standards.
Tshabalala-Msimang was briefing the heads of various medical schools, research institutions and statutory councils on the Comprehensive Plan for Management, Care and Treatment of HIV and Aids as approved by Cabinet in November last year.
She explained that there were specific skills critical to the safe and effective delivery of HIV care, management and treatment.
”It is important that the standard of these skills are universally known and assured, not only to promote the quality of service, but also to allow portability of those skills within the health sector,” she said.
In a speech prepared for delivery at the Holiday Inn at the Johannesburg International Airport, Tshabalala-Msimang also said more than 40 pharmaceutical companies and suppliers had expressed interest in supplying antiretroviral drugs through a national tender.
”These suppliers were last week briefed in detail on the requirements for this tender. They have until the 2nd of April to submit their detailed proposals. These proposals will be shortlisted. Those who qualify will provide quotes and the tender will be awarded,” Tshabalala-Msimang said.
The minister also told her audience that included the heads of the Health Science Faculties from various universities and universities of technology (previously technikons) and representatives of nursing colleges, research institutions, statutory councils, unions and professional associations, that extra staff were being employed and new computers purchased to ensure proper implementation.
”This should enable us to track patients throughout the health system and ensure that appropriate services and correct treatment is provided,” the minister explained. – Sapa