Theft Of Medication By Health Workers Worsening Shortages At Public Hospitals, Parliament Told

Public health institutions are reportedly losing millions of dollars through the theft of medication and hospital supplies by staff.

Health and Child Care Deputy Minister Sleiman Kwidini said this while responding to questions in the National Assembly on Wednesday.

Kwidini admitted that some health workers were stealing drugs meant for patients and reselling them to private pharmacies.

The issue was raised by Gutu South MP and ZANU PF Chief Whip Pupurai Togarepi.

In a follow-up question, Togarepi said the theft of medicines by hospital staff was worsening shortages at public health facilities.

In response, Kwidini said after the government supplies medication to hospitals and clinics, some employees steal it for resale in their own pharmacies.

He said his ministry had engaged a company to install a tracking system to monitor the movement of medicines from NatPharm to hospitals and clinics.

“We now have a tracking system that has been installed. With this new system, we are going to ensure that our medication is protected in hospitals,” Kwidini said.

Responding to Blessing Makamure (CCC), who had asked what the government was doing to ensure that patients get all services from government hospitals, instead of the current situation where they are just given prescriptions and they go to buy medication from pharmacies, Kwidini said that access to medication at hospitals and clinics remained a challenge.

“In the recent past, medication was accessible all over, but we had a challenge in terms of getting a constant supply. For now, it is true that in hospitals we do not have all the medication,” he said.

“We are in the process of establishing partnerships to access some medication manufactured locally for minor ailments”.

Kwidini added that government was also pursuing public-private partnerships to subsidise imported drugs while supporting local manufacturers to make medicines more affordable.