Eastern Cape Health is destroying tonnes of expired medicines and other medical supplies piled up in clinics and depots after they were not distributed in time to staff and patients who needed them. According to a Daily Dispatch report, in a bizarre act, some workers have been instructed to throw old pills into buckets of boiling water and to pour the dangerous concoction into stormwater drains, from where it may flow into rivers and streams.
During a month-long investigation, the Daily Dispatch said visited the department of health’s Mthatha medical depot and found medical supplies being thrown into dustbins, after which local municipality trucks took them to the dump. Health department staff, who spoke anonymously, said wastage was also common in many rural clinics. A senior employee said the department was failing to distribute desperately needed medical supplies to health centres which treated the poor.
“We have cases where patients are not receiving medicines because someone has failed to order them. At times, the medicine is expired and has to be destroyed because it has been sitting at the depot for months,” the provincial health department source said.
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