Health dept wants hospitals to check medical supplies

By Rebecca Kuku
THE Department of Health has called on all hospital authorities in the country to check their medical supplies every week.
Secretary Pascoe Kase said teams from the department would be calling hospital pharmacies every week to check on their stock levels.
“Where there are potential shortages we will deliver medicines,” he said.
“The PHA chief executive officers must also get their pharmacists to communicate with their area medical stores for their medical supplies.”
Kase said for rural health centres and aid posts, they must communicate with the logistics companies responsible for their region about medical kits which were delivered to the provinces last December.
“We want to ensure that hospitals do not face any medicine shortage.”
Meanwhile, Pascoe said the Government had approved K5 million for the Kudjip Nazarene Provincial Hospital in Jiwaka. Cabinet approved the funding last week to help the hospital stay open.
“We are working with Treasury to get some of these funds released for hospital operations this week,” he said.
Kudjip Nazarene Provincial Hospital started putting up notices on Tuesday to inform the public of its closure as it had no funds to continue its operations.
Prime Minister Peter O’Neill confirmed that Cabinet had approved the funding for the hospital.