Mbabane: Pregnant women are crying foul over the shortage of supplement drugs at the Mbabane Government Hospital.
Director of Health, Dr Vusi Magagula confirmed that the country’s biggest hospital is hit by a serious shortage of the nutritional drugs which are critical for the development of an unborn child. The drugs are important for the nourishment of both the mother’s and child’s every stage of life, as well as involved in gene expression and immune infection.
At worse, their shortage can cause birth defects.
Magagula attributed the shortage of the medication to the fiscal challenges which the country is faced with, disclosing that the country owes a lot of money to the suppliers of the drugs. However, he declined to state the amount of money owed by the government.
According to Magagula, the drugs in question are prenatal vitamins, fish oil, and calcium carbonate. He said he hoped that by the end of this year the government would have paid up all the money owed to the suppliers. “Government is doing all it can to pay its debt to the suppliers and come end of this year, we shall have something concrete to say,” said Magagula.
Fears
Some pregnant women that were interviewed by this publication revealed that their fear was that without the nutritional drugs they would give birth to defective babies. They spoke on condition of anonymity, citing fear of victimization since they still had to visit the hospital monthly. They complained that staff at the maternal section of the hospital did not explain anything to them pertaining to the changes but were only asked a few questions, weighed, and turned back home without the mandatory nutritional medication. They are not even given a prescription which they would take to pharmacies where they can purchase the drugs.
*Sindi said she has had to use drugs left by her relative who was being attended to at Mankayane Government Hospital. This is after the relative gave birth and felt she didn’t have to use the drugs any longer. “This is a sad situation and after exhausting my relative’s medication I am stumped for solutions as to where to go or what to do, since I cannot even afford to buy the drugs myself,” said *Sindi.
Noteworthy is that other hospitals across the country have not reported any shortage of the drugs, and all is normal as ever.
The Eswatini Nurses Association President, Bheki Mamba could not be reached for comment as his phone rang unanswered, neither did he respond to a WhatsApp message sent to him.
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