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Innocent Ruwende Senior Reporter
Delays in the delivery of medicines and other essential medical supplies owing to foreign currency shortages is causing drug stockouts at some Harare City Council clinics, a senior official has said.

Speaking at a ceremony to receive medical equipment donated to Hatfield Clinic by some residents at Beatrice Infectious Diseases Hospital in Harare yesterday, the city’s pharmaceutical services manager Mrs Florence Chingwena said only locally-manufactured drugs and equipment were being delivered on time.

“From last year’s statistics about 50 to 60 percent suppliers deliver on time and those are usually the ones which are locally available. For suppliers who purchase their products outside of the country, it takes much longer time,” she said.

“As a result of financial constraints, people are no longer stocking, but only bring in items after getting a confirmed order.

“From the time that you give them an order they will import but they are also citing foreign currency problems.”

She said the city sometimes waits for 60 to 90 days to get delivery of items it would have procured.

Mrs Chingwena said the Ministry of Health and Child Care supplies essential drugs such as those for malaria, tuberculosis and ARVs of which the city has full supplies.

“We get problems with medical sundries and other essential medicines, which are not provided in adequate quantities by the ministry.

“The city has to supplement through its revenue budget so we have to buy from the private sector. The private sector lets us down due to late deliveries,” she said.

“The other challenge we have is that of air conditioning. We also want to automate our dispatch processes. Currently we are doing it manually and it is very strenuous. We are short staffed so it puts a toll on our staff and at the same time it makes it difficult to process our orders on time.”

She said equipment such as fork lifts and pallet lifters were needed to make life easier for the city’s staff who often fall sick from lifting heavy boxes while offloading supplies from delivery trucks.

Mrs Rita Padzarondora who donated the medical equipment, which includes blood pressure kits on behalf of her family and other donors said she had noticed that Hatfiled Clinic did not have the kits.

“I have been staying in Hatfield since 1985. When I visited the clinic, I usually carry my BP machine because the clinic did not have a machine. I realised that several women wanted to have their BP checked,” she said.

“I was touched by the situation and volunteered my machine so they could use it while I waited outside. I then told my children who are abroad about the situation at the clinic and together with their friends they mobilised resources and bought the medical equipment.”