Minister of Health Dr George Norton on Tuesday declared that the country is experiencing no shortage of drugs and described a motion by the PPP/C taken to Parliament as playing politics with people’s lives while the mover of the motion Dr Frank Anthony described the situation as a crisis and called for an investigation to be done.
The government voted against Anthony’s motion.
In his speech to the National Assembly on Tuesday, Anthony, the former minister of culture, youth and sports in the PPP/C administration, who is a medical doctor by profession, described the situation as untenable especially for the poor who depend on the public health system. He said that when the public health system malfunctions it is literally a life and death situation.
He said the shortage of drugs and medical supplies that seems to be pervading the public health system, was affecting persons ailing from a number of diseases including cancer. He disclosed that at one Public Accounts Committee meeting the staff of the Georgetown Public Hospital reported the shortage of more than 168 items.
“I want to say Mr Speaker, categorically, that there is no crisis in the health sector so far as it relates to shortage of medicines and medical supplies,” Norton said in rebuttal.
He conceded that there had been shortages of a few medical supplies in the past but not of essential items as stated by Anthony and steps are being taken to remedy the situation.
He said there is no need to launch an investigation as is requested in the motion adding that the procurement of drugs remains a centralized the process except for minor purchases. He said $600 million was returned to the Ministry of Finance because of the late presentation of the budget and the change in the system of procurement of drugs from that which existed before. It is important, he said, that the money was accounted for and did not “disappear into thin air or into anyone’s pocket…”
The minister was of the opinion that main underlying reason for the motion is because the company (New GPC Inc) from which the past administration single sourced most of the country’s medical supplies would no longer enjoy such a condition.
Government hopes to create a system where access to medication and medical supplies will be in a sufficient quality and quantity, ensure that the issue of expired drugs will become a thing of the past, and to put a system of procurement in place that will not favour a particular company.
According to Norton the evaluation of tenders for supplies at the Georgetown Public Hospital has been completed and returned to the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board for granting of awards. He said the tenders for supplies to be provided to the rest of the country have been opened and the evaluation is expected to be completed shortly.
“Mr Speaker this issue [shortage of drugs] has been one of the most misrepresented issues in our newspapers in recent times…,” Norton declared.
He recalled that following one such report he had confronted the Chief Executive Officer of the GPHC and he in turn challenged the newspaper and invited them to the hospital to “see for themselves rather than just writing what persons might have said to them.”
And according to him the ministry sought the assistance of PAHO/WHO to bring in medical supplies while they “sort out some teething problems we are encountering in the realisation of a new method of procurement.
“I personally visited the regions from White Water Creek in Region One to Sand Creek in Region Nine from Moleson Creek in Region Six to Bamboo Creek in Region Eight… and I know what takes place on the ground…,” Norton said, adding that the visits did not reveal shortages of essential medication.
Reports
“We have received reports that at many of the hospitals, health centres [and] health posts that there are varying shortages of medical supplies. We have received complaints from many patients with chronic and other diseases that medications are not available at public pharmacies, forcing many of them to buy these medications,” Anthony told the House on Tuesday afternoon.
He pointed out that many old people are diagnosed with chronic diseases and depend on the public health system to stabilize their conditions and their meagre
funds cannot afford food and medication and as such most would prefer to buy the former as against the latter.
“This drug crisis Mr Speaker, is therefore putting many elderly persons at risk by not providing them with the medication that they need,” the former minister said. He charged that doctors have now resorted to writing prescriptions and asking the patients’ relatives to purchase some very “simple” medications and those who cannot afford are left without and suffer “because of poor management of the public health system.”
According to him, the situation also presents a “cruel irony” in that while at some hospitals intravenous antibiotics are available they cannot be used because there is a shortage of syringes, a basic requirement. He named the New Amsterdam Public Hospital as an example but said it is happening at other regional hospitals. Treatment for tuberculosis is also affected, according to Anthony, as medications used in the treatment of this disease are not available at GPHC.
“It is so bad Mr Speaker, that a common ailment that is very prevalent in this country perhaps is worm infestation. Could you imagine that at the Georgetown Hospital we don’t have worm tablets? And that’s a very cheap medication so I don’t think it is an issue of money here… It has to be something else and it has to be symptomatic of what is happening at this hospital,” Anthony said.
“You can talk about when we were there but you are there now and you had one year and you not fixing it,” Anthony said in response to one of his colleagues on the government side
Basic medication like folic acid is also not available at GPHC, according to Anthony, as he questioned what is happening and declared that the shortage is chronic as a result of bad management.
Meanwhile, Anthony stated that Zika is a major public health problem in Guyana and that ignoring it would not make it go away as “it would not fix by itself.” He called on Norton to tell the public what mechanism he has put in place to collect information on suspected cases of the disease; how many pregnant mothers have been tested for the disease and how many samples have been sent to the Caribbean Public Health lab.
“We, as citizens of this country, Mr Speaker, deserve to know what is happening with this outbreak we have also an international obligation to report…,” Anthony said. He said the regional hospitals do not have ventilators to treat some of the patients with the Guillian Barre Syndrome (GBS) and some patients are asked to purchase some very expensive medication that they cannot afford.
He also asked the minister to tell the Parliament what is the situation with Lailac Infant Milk which the Government Analyst-Food and Drug Department (GA-FDD) had deemed unsafe and ordered removed from local shelves. Anthony wanted to know the quantity of the said milk bought for the public sector and whether there were any adverse consequences.
Norton did not respond to either of these two issues in his presentation.
