Leader of the Opposition in Parliament Brian Mundubile says the findings of the committee of parliamentarians constituted to assess supply of drugs in hospitals countrywide point to serious shortage of medicines and laboratory reagents in most health facilities in the country, than earlier projected.
Mr Mundubile, who is also PF Presidential Candidate, said in Lusaka that the report the committee of parliamentarians constituted by Speaker of the National Assembly, Nelly Mutti to assess the supply of drugs in hospitals countrywide, depicts a serious shortage of drugs, forcing people to buy from pharmacies and private hospitals.
“The situation is actually more serious than we earlier thought and as a result of that, a number of our people, especially the poor people, the poor Zambians are adversely affected. We are at a position where there are no reagents in hospitals and even stationery now is a problem,” he said.
Mr Mundubile said, whereas Government was loud on the employment of 11,000 health workers, they are failing to provide equipment and other medical requirements needed to treat patients, and this is frustrating medical personnel who have little or nothing to work effectively.
“There are no medicines, there are no drugs, there are no reagents, there is no stationery. There is minimal impact if any at all,” he said.
He called on Government to urgently address the shortage of drugs and laboratory reagents, as this centres on saving people’s lives.
“You will remember that not very long ago, the supply of drugs to hospitals a couple of years ago had been very smooth. There was improvement in the supply chain, the system was actually automated. So, one therefore wonders why we have gotten back to the 1980s where you would have such critical shortage of drugs. We want to call upon Government to take this matter seriously and attend to it,” he said.
