Availability of medicine at Seshego Hospital under the spotlight
Stock at the Seshego Pharmaceutical Depot would run out before the end of a financial year and patients were told that budgets constraints meant waiting for the next financial year before the depot could restock.
The availability of medicine at Seshego Hospital came under the spotlight during an impromptu visit to the Seshego Pharmaceutical Depot by Health MEC, Dr Phophi Ramathuba last Tuesday.
Residents have in recent years complained that treatment at the hospital is limited in terms of the availability of prescription medicine.
In addition, stock would run out before the end of a financial year and patients were told that budgets constraints meant waiting for the next financial year before the depot could restock.
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The Health Department recently allocated R140m for children’s vaccines and buffer stock is expected to last until the next financial year in June.
“An additional R200m was also allocated towards general medicine which will ensure continuous availability of medicine,” departmental spokesperson, Neil Shikwambana added.
Last Thursday, the community discussed with hospital management their concerns about the medicine shortages and were told that systems upgrades were in the process of being done.
Ramathuba made mention of the importance of clinic managers updating their databasis, the Stock Visibility Systems (SVS) will have reflected the shortages had it been captured.
The SVS is a web-based management tool with a mobile application that is used at public primary health care (PHC) clinics to capture and monitor medicine availability.
