Bloemfontein - While it appears that the sporadic shortages of medication at public health facilities in the Free State have become the "new normal", the lack of life-sustaining medication is placing people with comorbidities at a higher risk of dying of the coronavirus (Covid-19), the Democratic Alliance said on Sunday.
The DA had submitted questions in the Free State legislature to health MEC Montseng Tsiu after receiving complaints from the public regarding shortages of life-sustaining medication for conditions such as diabetes and hypertension at clinics, DA whip of the official opposition in the legislature Mariette Pittaway said in a statement.
In her replies, Tsiu had confirmed the shortages and said they were due to companies not being able to deliver or delaying the delivering of medication; clinics were procuring medication from the medical depot in Bloemfontein, which was unable to fulfil the orders due to unavailability of stock nationwide; the supplier could not meet the demands as ordered due to unavailability; and all outstanding orders were cancelled with the transition of the new financial year and new orders had to be placed.
"The DA has been emphasising this serious problem for the past six years. It appears that the sporadic shortages of medication have become the new normal in the Free State and are not taken seriously by the provincial government," Pittaway said.
According to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), persons with comorbidities, especially cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and hypertension, were at greater risk of mortality when contracting Covid-19.
The administrative incompetence of the health department continuously led to a lack of life-sustaining medication at state health institutions and was placing people with comorbidities at a higher risk of dying.
"The MEC must take personal responsibility for the unnecessary additional deaths that will take place because of her callous attitude. The DA regards the provincial health department’s attitude to the lives of patients as culpable homicide.
"The DA will continue to monitor the shortages of medication at our health institutions and tirelessly expose and interrogate the MEC both inside and outside of the legislature in our fight for the rights of Free Staters to decent healthcare," Pittaway said.