Health Crisis: A month later, dispensary rooms remain locked
- Ministry says no patient should go home without medication - 'Always ask for officer in charge of clinic'
The Ministry of Health says patients should not return home without prescribed medications after doing consultations at public health facilities even if nurses tell them that they are not dispensing medications.
If anything, patients should ask to see the officer in charge of the health facility for assistance instead of going home empty-handed, while there is available medication in the dispensary room, Ministry of Health spokesperson Christopher Nyanga has said.
Since the beginning of this month, nurses and midwives who are members of the Botswana Nurses Union (BONU) downed tools, saying they will not dispense medicines any longer because as per the Medicines and Related Substances Act of 2013, anyone without a license from the relevant authority is prohibited from operating a dispensary or pharmacy.
When BONU announced its intentions at the beginning of this month, the Ministry of Health made assurances that everything would be done to avoid disruption of service.
However, ceasing dispensation of drugs resulted in some dispensary rooms being locked as there was no one to dispense drugs. An observation made by The Midweek Sun was that clinics are mostly affected compared to hospitals.
Patients are being told by nurses on a daily basis at clinics to find medication elsewhere after consultation, forcing them to travel to the nearest health facility where a pharmacist operates the dispensary or buy medication in private pharmacies.
Nyanga said that they are still working on a long term solution to this matter and that arrangements have been made at all District Health Management Teams for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to service all facilities where nurses and midwives have stopped dispensing medications.
“Although this is a temporary arrangement to help fill the gap left by nurses and midwives currently not dispensing medications, it has helped to keep our people receive medication from dispensing services at our facilities,” he said.
He added that the ministry does not expect any patient to be sent home without medications that are available.
“The ministry expects nurses in charge of clinics to advise patients on where and how to get the prescribed medications, if they themselves, can’t dispense to the patients,” Nyanga said.
To try and remedy the situation, Nyanga said the Ministry has started recruiting pharmacists and pharmacy technicians and some have already been posted to various DHMTs across the country.
Nyanga noted that there are few pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in the market, which means that even after the ministry has absorbed everything currently in the market, it would still not have reached satisfactory levels.
The Ministry of Health says patients should not return home without prescribed medications after doing consultations at public health facilities even if nurses tell them that they are not dispensing medications.
If anything, patients should ask to see the officer in charge of the health facility for assistance instead of going home empty-handed, while there is available medication in the dispensary room, Ministry of Health spokesperson Christopher Nyanga has said.
Since the beginning of this month, nurses and midwives who are members of the Botswana Nurses Union (BONU) downed tools, saying they will not dispense medicines any longer because as per the Medicines and Related Substances Act of 2013, anyone without a license from the relevant authority is prohibited from operating a dispensary or pharmacy.
When BONU announced its intentions at the beginning of this month, the Ministry of Health made assurances that everything would be done to avoid disruption of service.
However, ceasing dispensation of drugs resulted in some dispensary rooms being locked as there was no one to dispense drugs. An observation made by The Midweek Sun was that clinics are mostly affected compared to hospitals.
Patients are being told by nurses on a daily basis at clinics to find medication elsewhere after consultation, forcing them to travel to the nearest health facility where a pharmacist operates the dispensary or buy medication in private pharmacies.
Nyanga said that they are still working on a long term solution to this matter and that arrangements have been made at all District Health Management Teams for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to service all facilities where nurses and midwives have stopped dispensing medications.
“Although this is a temporary arrangement to help fill the gap left by nurses and midwives currently not dispensing medications, it has helped to keep our people receive medication from dispensing services at our facilities,” he said.
He added that the ministry does not expect any patient to be sent home without medications that are available.
“The ministry expects nurses in charge of clinics to advise patients on where and how to get the prescribed medications, if they themselves, can’t dispense to the patients,” Nyanga said.
To try and remedy the situation, Nyanga said the Ministry has started recruiting pharmacists and pharmacy technicians and some have already been posted to various DHMTs across the country.
Nyanga noted that there are few pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in the market, which means that even after the ministry has absorbed everything currently in the market, it would still not have reached satisfactory levels.
