DRUG AVAILABILITY IMPROVES IN HEALTH FACILITIES

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DRUG AVAILABILITY IMPROVES IN HEALTH FACILITIES
DRUG AVAILABILITY IMPROVES IN HEALTH FACILITIES

Africa-Press – Botswana. Medicinal drug availability has improved from 48 to 69 per cent in the last quarter in healthcare facilities across the Tsabong District.

Speaking during Tsabong District full council meeting, council chairperson, Mr Hendrick Jacobs said Ministry of Health had for some time been grappling with shortage of medicinal drugs across the country.

Kgalagadi South District Health Management Team (DHMT) has in the previous quarter observed an improvement in the drug stock levels, which came as a result of stock level improvement at Central Medical Stores, he said.

Mr Jacobs said by the end of July, stock levels continued to improve with vital drugs standing at 76 per cent stocking rate.

Essential drugs were at 71 per cent, necessary drugs were stocked at 51 per cent and Non-drugs at 78 per cent, resulting in an overall percentage of 69, which is a significant improvement from the 48 per cent realised in the last quarter.

This, he said, translated to 21 per cent increase in overall availability of drugs in the district.

“It is on this premise that I do appeal to DHMT to continue to monitor the stock levels in the district and ascertain that our community members always have access to drugs. Let me applaud you for placing the health of our community in the forefront,” he said.

Mr Jacobs highlighted that even though the drug availability situation had improved, the DHMT had been challenged with non-dispensing of medicines by nurses since July to date, leading to patients delaying at the clinics and health posts.

As a containment measure, he said pharmacy technicians were rotated around healthcare facilities to dispense medicines, which came at a cost and delays as there was a limited number of pharmacy technicians in the district.

The exercise, he said, shall go on until a solution was found as the Ministry of Health was working round the clock to deal with it.

On disease surveillance, he said the DHMT continued to monitor and strengthen community mobilisation on the outbreak of mumps, which was recorded in the greater Lobatse (Good Hope area) and greater Gaborone DHMTs.

“It is quite encouraging to note that Kgalagadi South has not recorded any suspect or any case of mumps. At the moment the DHMT has sensitised all facilities to be on the lookout for any suspicious patients. I implore you to encourage community members to report any suspicious cases to the nearest health facility,” he said.

On other issues, the council chairperson said Tsabong District had received different medical specialists on monthly basis since June such as obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, ophthalmology, oncology and internal medicine as well as psychiatrist and dermatologist, who came in 2022 as part of the outreach programme.

He said on each visit they attended to over 70 patients in total and the visits were conducted on monthly basis.

Moreover, he said a Physiotherapist had been scheduled to visit on monthly basis for five days per month effective July, where so far 37 patients had been assisted.

The existence of the visiting physiotherapist improved access to such services and will also reduce the travelling costs through referrals and by individual patients as physiotherapy was usually accessed in Gaborone and Kang.

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