By A Correspondent- Presenting a Second Report of the Portfolio Committee on Health and Child Care on the State of Medicines and Drugs Supply in the Public Health Institutions of Zimbabwe before parliament, Mathias Tongofa lamented the acute drugs shortages affecting public health institutions.
He said:
“As already alluded to in the introduction, since the last quarter of 2018, the country has been faced with severe shortage of medicines across the board.
However, the crisis has been more severe in the public than in private health institutions as most essential medicines and drugs for chronic ailments such as hypertension and diabetes were out of stock.
Consequently, senior doctors at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals have been on record protesting over shortages of medicines and supplies as the situation became dire, putting lives of the patients at risk of preventable complications and deaths.
During the oral evidence meeting on the 10th of April 2019, the Minister of Health and Child Care confirmed that the public health institutions in the country were in a dire state.
He further stated that shortages of medicines and drugs, among other medical supplies, were being experienced right from the primary healthcare level to the tertiary institutions.”