The ManicaPost
Ray Bande-Senior Reporter
HEALTH and Child Care Deputy Minister, Dr John Mangwiro, on Tuesday came face-to-face with inefficiencies in State institutions after his unannounced visit to Victoria Chitepo Provincial Hospital revealed that the institution’s pharmacy was operating without a record of medicines in stock and those disbursed.
This exposed the whole system to abuse as deceitful employees with access to the pharmacy could easily steal drugs without anyone noticing.
This probably explains why some medical institutions’ employees were operating backyard surgeries and clinics where they treated patients and dispensed drugs that would have been stolen from their employers.
Infuriated by the pharmacist’s failure to produce a stock record or explain the reasons behind the glitch, Dr Mangwiro requested a written report over the issue.
“What are you guys doing here if you do not have a record of what is in stock and what you have disbursed? This means if anyone steals any kind of medicine you cannot account for it.
“This is unacceptable. In fact, I want a report on this matter. How can you fail to have something as basic as a record of what you have and what you do not have? Do you even know how many of these (picking a bottle of pills) you have in stock?” he fumed.
During his tour, the Heath and Child Care Deputy Minister bemoaned the referral hospital’s dirty environs, saying such things did not require any financial injections to be done.
“If l was to bring my cow here, it would gain a lot of weight given the grass that is growing everywhere around this place. The windows are so dirty as if the place is deserted. There are cobwebs everywhere, yet there are people working here. Some of these things do not need any money to be done properly,” said Dr Mangwiro as he moved around the hospital wards.
When contacted for comment on Wednesday, Victoria Chitepo Provincial Hospital Medical Superintendent, Dr Dorcas Msanga-Mutede downplayed the issue and said, “The matter has since been resolved.”
The incident comes hard on the heels of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Minister Kazembe Kazembe’s first hand experience on corruption happening at the Makombe Passport Office in Harare after he was asked to pay a US$30 bribe to jump the queue.
The bribe recipient, Avito Newton (40), ran out of luck after the minister had him arrested.
Minister Kazembe, who has been carrying out impromptu visits to the Registrar General’s offices, visited Makombe Office and endured the rot that citizens are going through to obtain passports.
