Department announces plans to curb medication shortage

The Gauteng Department of Health recently awarded contracts to pharmaceutical companies in an attempt to curb the shortage of medication in public health facilities.

The contracts, worth more than R32 million, were awarded to companies to supply and deliver much-needed pharmaceutical items to institutions across the province. This included pharmaceuticals from the Medical Supplies Depot, which would be distributed to health institutions including the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, as well as health institutions from the department’s other suppliers.

Speaking of the distribution was Gauteng MEC for Health, Qedani Mahlangu, who explained that deliveries would be done twice a week to four central hospitals and once a week to three tertiary hospitals.

“Six regional hospitals, 33 district hospitals, 77 primary healthcare clinics and community healthcare centres, plus 12 emergency medical services facilities and five district pharmacies also get deliveries once a week,” Mahlangu explained.

“Each of the trucks collecting and delivering the goods has a real-time tracking device monitoring the movement of the truck throughout its route to ensure no deviation from the scheduled trip; the trucks are also enclosed to protect stock from weather effects.

“The delivery trucks use a scanning system to scan and track all the ‘rolltainer’ carts [trolleys] in the trucks. This linking mechanism would then be used to monitor accurate handover of stock to the institutions and the return of the rolltainers to the depot. Finally, the system will also provide a real-time traceability report of the trolleys, thus assisting with asset management.”

Read: Health Department report reveals R500 million irregular expenditure

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