Nurses Association Says Patients Are Dying Due To Lack Of Essential Drugs

The Zimbabwe Nurses Association (ZINA) has called on the government to address the issue of lack of drugs in public hospitals. ZINA said that its members have been forced to watch patients dying due to a lack of medication. ZINA secretary-general Enock Dongo told the Daily News,

As nurses, we are not happy with the situation in our hospitals. We are saying that the government must urgently look at this issue. We don’t have anything to use and we feel sorry for patients. We are watching them dying as many of them are failing to buy drugs which are now being sold in US dollars. I think the crisis in the health sector is not being handled well at all.

The Pharmaceutical Wholesalers Association (PWA) said the country is facing a shortage of drugs due to lack of foreign currency allocations. Said the PWA

The situation deteriorated sharply over the past three months during which the association was allocated five percent of the foreign currency it needed. Collectively, association members owe their foreign suppliers $27 million, and this has led to the suspension of credit facilities, and suppliers now demand prepayment of any new orders.

More: Daily News

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