Public urged to report illegal sale of drugs
The National Referral Hospital (NRH) and the National Medical Stores (NMS) are calling on the public to report the illegal sale of drugs and medication.
The call is being made following online allegations that certain staff from the NRH and NMS are involved in selling drugs and medication.
The Chief Executive Officer of the NRH, Dr George Malefoasi, however confirmed that no formal incident report has been received so far by the NRH Management.
Dr Malefoasi said the reports on the sale of drugs and medical supplies involving hospital staff is very serious and management is urging the public to come forward and submit formal reports so investigation into the matter can commence.
“Currently, there is no incident report of such theft at the hospital by staff so the hospital management calls on the public to report if they are being asked for money for drugs and medication or if they witnessed such acts from staff.”
“Unless we receive reports about these illegal sales of medicine or any hospital services or care, we are not able to act, but we will take responsible steps to derail such actions.”
“The advice usually given to those seeking medication not available at the NRH Pharmacy, is that they need to purchase the medication from private Pharmacies, whilst awaiting arrival of new stock in the next couple of weeks.”
He added an internal assessment of the drug stock management site of the hospital was done last year and there are gaps in storing, inventory and store management issues which need to be addressed to reduce drug wastage and unauthorised removal and handling.
Meanwhile, on reports of current medicine shortage, including malaria drugs, in various HCC satellite clinics, the NMS clarifies that limited malaria medication is in stock at the National Referral Hospital and the next order should arrive in the country in early August.
However, an emergency order for malaria medicine and other vital antibiotics have also been made and these should arrive in the country by plane next week.
The NMS also confirms that there is an adequate stock of syringes, cottonwool, gauze, paracetamol, amoxicillin and water for injection.
They are looking into why these clinics do not have these as claimed on Social Media. The current process of restocking of satellite clinics is upon orders from each clinic.
Clinic Managers are being urged to monitor their stock and submit orders for medication and medical items early, well before their stocks run out, to avoid shortage at the clinics and services are not being affected.
The National Medical Stores clarifies that following recent allegations on social media suggesting Hydrocortisone Injection, out of stock at NRH is available at Private Clinic, checks were made against stock and records and it is established that none of the batch shown in the picture, matches any order from National Medical Stores for 2021,2022, and 2023.
The NMS statement clarifies that anything beyond 2021 would have expired already.
Hydrocortisone is currently out of stock, with the delivery expected in June but now is currently delayed due to Suppliers not supplying in time as requested on Tender contracts.
A few private medical clinics have been identified as possessing batches from National Medical Stores, and this serious allegation is being investigated.
The NMS is urging the public to come forward and formally report any known sale of drugs and medical supplies involving its staff.
The MHMS confirms that stringent measures will be implemented both at the NRH and the NMS to ensure medicine and medical supplies are handled and distributed properly under strict supervision to avoid current leakages starting from when the medicine and medical supplies arrive right through to when it is being distributed to the clinics and how it is being distributed to patients.
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MHMS