Misuse and wastage of medication in the health sector

Open letter to Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi

Sir, do you know the wastage and misuse of drugs that is occurring in our health facilities, costing the taxpayer millions?*

There are hundreds of much-needed medical personnel who are unemployed, with the Department of Health citing lack of budgets as an excuse for such unemployment.

Yet the gratuitous wastage and shrinkage in health facilities and the misuse of medication add to this growing scourge.

This spans across major state hospitals to Community Health Centres (CHCs) to peripheral clinics, and budgets are exhausted long before the financial year end, placing facilities in an invidious position of not providing essentials and life-saving drugs.

When last, if ever, did you or any of your directors-general do a spot oversight visit to a health facility to ascertain even a cursory look at how the facility is being run and the control measures implemented?

Do you have any idea as to how drugs are being prescribed to the patients, and at times, misused in the manner in which they are prescribed?

The EDL (Essential Drugs List), which is used as a tool from which to prescribe drugs, has become meaningless - oftentimes, many of the drugs are not available due to non-payment to suppliers.

Lazy or incompetent doctors (some, not all) prescribe drugs as if it were a grocery shopping list - up to 18 to 20 items per script.

Is this even necessary?

There are some doctors who simply add items onto a script at the behest of a patient - this goes beyond the pale, especially noting the fact that a doctor should know better, but panders to the pleadings of a patient.

Sadly, this goes unchecked, but importantly it ultimately burdens the taxpayer significantly.

Have you implemented any strict due diligence at all health facilities in the country to help prevent the theft of medication by staff, in one form or another?

The fact that drug suppliers are not paid duly and withhold medical supplies handicaps medical practitioners from effectively implementing proper and cost-effective health care.

Ask any state pharmacist the amount of unused drugs that are returned to the facility beyond the expiry date rendering such drugs unusable - strict patient compliant measures and control need to be implemented - are they?

Sir, do not use the lack of funds as an excuse - change what is changeable, even if it is not palatable to the unscrupulous who care less about cost, and the availability of funds will increase exponentially.

As the minister responsible for a critical aspect of our society, it is incumbent upon you not to be an ivory tower administrator but rather an activist of change and progress, and I hope that you do just that - else our failing state health care system will degenerate even further.

I do not want to get started on the National Health Insurance (NHI) - that elephant in the room, in my candid opinion, will become tuskless - in time.

THE MERCURY