Africa-Press – Eswatini. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) needs encouragement for the role it is playing, not only in enforcing accountability for public funds but also for working hard to help resolve the country’s healthcare challenges.
Yes, the PAC has been instrumental in pushing for changes in the public health system, particularly with regard to procurement of drugs and supplies.This Parliament committee recently visited the Kingdom of Lesotho, where the main objective was to compare and contrast that country’s healthcare system with that of Eswatini. The glaring inefficiencies in our system were laid bare. Members of the PAC visited Lesotho a fortnight ago to conduct a benchmarking exercise that would pave the way towards solving the litany of challenges engulfing our health sector. Six members of the committee took the trip, accompanied by officers from the Auditor General’s office, the Ministry of Finance and Parliament.
According to PAC Chairman Madala Mhlanga, the team engaged stakeholders in the Lesotho health sector and parliamentary bodies that oversee health issues. Particular emphasis was on procurement, storage and distribution of medical drugs. Mhlanga says they chose Lesotho because the mountain kingdom is considered by the Global Fund as one of the best in healthcare in the region. If we could pause right here, this is exactly where Eswatini, which has for years expressed aspiration to become a First World country, should be.
Advancements
We should have already made advancements in various sectors like education, health, agriculture and manufacturing, to cement our place as a nation intent on becoming a fully developed country in the not-so-distant future. Other nations should be coming here to admire our progress and take notes.Instead, we are still in the process of finding out how other countries are doing the very things that earn a country First World status. Anyway, one of the PAC team’s discoveries was that in Lesotho, the issue of expired drugs is almost non-existent.
Unlike in Eswatini where expired drugs worth millions of Emalangeni are regularly destroyed, to the detriment of the taxpayer. In Lesotho, there has been a huge decrease of such cases. That country is saving millions of Maloti (the equivalent of the Lilangeni) by strategically ensuring that the quantity of expired drugs is reduced. Destroying expired drugs is similar to taking wads of cash and throwing them into a fire, burning them to ashes. A country that makes a habit of doing that cannot be serious about improving its economy, controlling expenditure and limiting loss.
The Eswatini team found that Lesotho was such a beacon of admiration as far as healthcare is concerned mainly because of transforming their medical stores into a fully independent National Drug Service Organisation (NDSO). The NDSO is the equivalent of our Central Medical Stores (CMS) which currently operates as a government department. The mandate of Lesotho’s NDSO is to purchase, store and distribute health sector goods in line with requirements of the various health facilities. These changes have resulted in Lesotho not experiencing medical drug stock-outs. Yes, unlike here in our country, baSotho always receive all the medication as prescribed when seeking treatment from government hospitals.
According to the PAC Chairman, the NDSO not only supplies public health facilities with drugs and other medical supplies but also distributes ARVs to patients in private hospitals. A healthy nation is a productive one. That is why healthcare is always a major deciding factor in elections in countries like the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
Voters
Voters always want to know what an incoming leader’s healthcare plan is. If it is not sound, they will not be voted into office. As fate would have it, while mulling the PAC’s trip to Lesotho and the takeaways thereof, Prime Minister Russell Dlamini left his comfortable office in last Wednesday’s unbearable heat and visited the CMS. This was the same day he also toured the National Psychiatric Centre in Manzini, the Mbabane Government Hospital and Manzini Government Hospital.
At the CMS in Matsapha, Dlamini minced no words as he criticised management for having no tangible plan of action to address the theft of medical drugs from the department’s warehouses. The PM seemed to appreciate the gravity of the situation and the impatience of the nation with regard to the never-ending health crisis. He demanded answers from both the Ministry of Health and CMS management regarding their plans to decisively address this challenge. “We do not want glorified strategies here; we want action plans,” he told CMS Assistant Director, Thembi Gama.
Some commentators on social media have criticised the PM for this tough stance, saying Cabinet was actually to blame for the country’s perpetual healthcare crisis. I beg to differ. Dlamini’s stern words were directed at the right people, namely Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Health Khanya Mabuza and CMS management. CMS staffers are the people on the ground and Cabinet ministers cannot be all over the country, monitoring every minute detail and overseeing every action.
As the PM rightly pointed out, the CMS needs to have a full proof tracking mechanism to trace the movement of drugs from its warehouses to the health facilities and finally to the patient’s hands. The theft of medical drugs, which are allegedly sold to some private pharmacies, is one of the factors that have contributed to a shortage of same in government hospitals and clinics. It has not always been like this. Eswatini’s health sector used to thrive, with all medication and supplies available in abundance at all clinics and hospitals.
It is time to get back to that era and make the country great again, as far as healthcare is concerned. That is why we welcome reports that a Zambian registered company has been engaged to oversee the transformation of the CMS into a semi-autonomous entity, at a cost of E80 million. The PAC, which has seen an excellent healthcare system in motion in Lesotho, should not be left out when consultations for this very important exercise are made. Also, the engaged Partnership for Improving Supply Chain Management in Africa (PICMA) should adopt a ‘nkwe’ approach in their task. The nation cannot afford a long, drawn-out process because this is literally a matter of life and death.
Source: times
For More News And Analysis About Eswatini Follow Africa-Press
