Zorena Jantze
THE Minister of Health and Social Services, Dr. Kalumbi Shangula has voiced concerns about the shortage of certain medicines, especially for chronic ailments.
Shangula made the remark on Wednesday at the launch of the 2022 Management Development Forum is meeting under the theme “Delivering Effective Service Efficiently, amidst Covid-19 Pandemic”.
Shangula explained that on 28 February 2022, the health ministry launched the quality assurance documents that, once followed by the letter, would ensure quality service to patients and customers.
“However, we cannot assure quality of service in the absence of essential medicines and other medical products and commodities,” Shangula said.
“Of late we have received with concern, shortage of certain medicines especially certain medicines for chronic ailments. In 2019, we resolved the problem related to availability of all medicines. We seemed to have fallen back. We have to re-engineer the procurement process to serve us well. Procurement of medicines and clinical supplies remain a perfect candidate for inclusion in the next strategic plan,” Shangula shared.
The Ministry of Health and Social Services has established the National Management Development Forum as the first official engagement of each year.
The engagement seeks to map out health sector strategies and policy direction towards improved health outcomes for the ensuing year.
Touching on how the country has fared in terms of some health issues, Shangula said that a significant reduction in institutional neonatal mortality was reported during the current strategic plan period, from 20/1000 live births in 2016 to 12/1000 live births in 2020.
Notwithstanding this achievement, Maternal and Neonatal Health remains high on the agenda of the Ministry and the Government, Shangula said.
He added that mothers and babies are still losing their precious lives under circumstances that could be prevented.
Touching on tuberculosis (TB) and HIV, Shangula said it is a matter of grave concern to note that Namibia continues to observe missed or undiagnosed TB cases. According to WHO statistics, this figure is estimated to be at 44%.
He explained that the Covid-19 pandemic has further aggravated Namibia’s capacities to detect TB cases, mainly through interruptions to the diagnostic supply chain, redirection of resources and the effect of restrictions.
“The intersection of HIV/AIDS and Covid-19 pandemics has a detrimental effect on the control of TB. Certain public health measures required to control the spread of Covid-19 have led to societal restrictions, including lockdowns and curfews that have negatively impacted the economy, education and health. Specifically, with regard to persons with HIV, the Covid-19 pandemic has a negative effect on HIV testing, linkage to care, treatment access, availability of pre-exposure prophylaxis and other HIV prevention strategies. These disruptions may result in significantly high numbers of new HIV infections and deaths,” Shangula stated.
Picture for illustrative purposes only.
