KwaZulu-Natal portfolio committee on health chairperson Dr Imran Keeka said facility level and the National Department of Health must answer why there are supplier issues and why ordering of medicines is not done properly.

This was after the committee undertook an oversight visit to the Provincial Pharmaceutical Supply Depot in Mobeni on Thursday.

“What I think is noteworthy is that tenders for medicines are not decided upon at a provincial level. These are deals that are concluded at national level,” Keeka said.

He said provinces inform the National Department of Health of their needs; procurement and finalisation of deals with suppliers are concluded nationally and signed off by the director-general of health. The provincial health department pays for those medicines.

“We also believe that, and this was a discussion that we had in the committee, that there is technically politics at play here. The committee did not rule out the idea that CEOs of facilities and pharmaceutical managers at district levels may be having an issue with the G77/2024 circular that was issued last year… This politics is creating a problem at the facility level that doesn’t exist at provincial level,” Keeka explained.

Keeka said on Thursday morning he received a message from a facility complaining about not having certain medicines and not receiving their order. However, upon checking at the depot, the facility had only ordered on Tuesday, after running out of stock. The order was received and processed Wednesday and dispatched Thursday. There was no stock shortage at the depot.

“It is those kinds of things that reinforce for us that there is some form of politics at play,” Keeka said.

Who’s to blame?

“If I had to place blame at somebody’s door, I would place it in two places: I would place it at the facility level and I would place it at the door of the National Department of Health,” Keeka said.

“Both of them must be answerable as to why there are supplier issues and why ordering is not done properly.”

“We have said there must be accountability at facility and district levels,” Keeka continued.

He said in the event of an issue, they indicated their desire to engage with Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo, the chairperson of the national portfolio committee, so he can hold the department accountable for some of the challenges KZN is facing.

National Department of Health responds

National Department of Health, Chief Director for Health Products Procurement, Khadija Jamaloodien, said the budget is held in the province which place orders with suppliers.

“The tenders are done nationally and the provinces use the tenders to buy because they sit with the budget. So we just put the contracts in place and then the provinces buy off the contracts,” Jamaloodien said.

She said it was necessary to determine the root cause of the supplier issues, such as the specific challenges the supplier faced.

“What we always try to do is get a root cause analysis because it is not the same reason for all the products that are in short supply. Yes, sometimes it is a supplier issue where they didn’t have raw materials or whatever but sometimes it’s also the province issue where they didn’t pay the supplier,” Jamaloodien explained.

“There’s always two sides to a story and we try to get a middle ground so that we can ensure there’s always medicines for patients.”

The KZN Health Department had not responded by the time of publication.

thobeka.ngema@inl.co.za