Prime Minister Russel Dlamini who returned this morning to find a crisis at the Mbabane Government Hospital which grounded key services earlier this week, has pledged to deal with the root cause of the problem.
The Prime Minister says the crisis at the national principal referral hospital highlighted a need for a complete overhaul of the entire machinery of government.
“It’s not just the ministry of health that must be restructured but the whole government machinery. However it is important that we prioritize the health sector so that we don’t just deal with the symptoms but address the root cause of the problem.”
“We need a proper restructuring which includes the structure of the management including how we procure medical supplies.”
Speaking shortly after he landed this morning, the Prime Minister praised the swift action of the minister of health Mduduzi Matsebula who ensured that drugs were urgently delivered and services resumed. The Prime Minister said effective reforms to strengthen the health sector would have to be an inclusive process: “We need support from all sectors so that we do this as quickly as possible. At the same time we need to appeal to the public to be patient with us during this restructuring process so that the crisis we are coming from does not recur.”
The Prime Minister who was in Rwanda for the AFCTA meeting thanked the minister of health for his swift action to restore services at the Hospital which suspended surgical operations and dialysis treatment after it suddenly ran out of essential drugs and medical supplies.
The government health sector is in an ongoing crisis inspired by large scale malfeasance, procurement inefficiency and fraud. The report of a forensic audit of the drugs procurement ordered by the Ministry of Finance shows that billions have disappeared in fake procurement and negligence.
After essential services were suspended, hundreds of patients who regularly do dialysis at the Hospital were turned back. The minister of health who said he was unaware of the crisis until he read about it in the newspapers ordered emergency supplies that were delivered later in week. Stockout of drugs and essential materials is a regular occurence in the public health sector. The minister of health assured parliament recently that medical stocks had risen to 60%.
jm/today/12.10.2024
