Pharmacies are ripping us off!

LIFE, that precious gift given to us by our Creator, is deliberately being made expensive by pharmacies and it is becoming scary.
With the Ministry of Health headed by one Bennedict Xaba dismally failing to ensure that we have a constant supply of medical drugs in public health institutions, pharmacies are taking an advantage of this sad situation and milking us dry –literally.
It is now common knowledge that government is struggling to arrest the problem of drug shortages in public clinics and hospitals and sadly, this effectively means that pharmacies will continue making a killing at our expense.
Pharmacies are charging an arm and a leg for medication normally offered at reasonable prices in public health institutions.
affordable
Usually affordable drugs such as the ever-on-demand Panado will cost you a fortune at a pharmacy yet, in public health institutions, it costs less than E10.
Today, an Average Joe like myself is finding it extremely tough to maintain this precious gift of life given by the Creator.
In the not-so-distant past, this was not a problem because we did not find reason to visit pharmacies since there were enough medical drugs in public health institutions.
With a little less than E10, we could afford to access medical health care and continue living our lives.
However, all this has changed, thanks to government’s failure to provide a consistent supply of medical drugs.
Everyday, nurses and doctors, especially at the Mbabane Government Hospital, refer us to pharmacies around town and what a big hole they dig into our already worn-out pockets!
Purchasing anything from these pharmacies is guaranteed to leave you without a penny, not even bus fare if you are from far-flung places such as Mgomfelweni.
making
I’m making reference to far-flung places because it is known that the Mbabane Government Hospital is the biggest referral hospital in this country and hordes of people from very far away areas climb Malagwane Hill in search of medical health care.
Unfortunately, they never get the medical assistance they expect from the government hospital. Instead, they are referred to these expensive pharmacies where in order to get medical assistance, they must part with every coin and note.
By the way, whether or not the Mbabane Government Hospital qualifies to be called a referral hospital is a subject for another day.
The subject for today is that anything and everything is expensive at local pharmacies and anyone who has visited them in search of life can attest to this.
They charge almost twice of what is charged in public health institutions. It’s even worse when you have medical aid.
As soon as you brandish your medical aid card, the doctor  just flashes a wry smile as he prepares your bill.
Apparently, when you have medical aid, they charge you even more and it’s difficult to fathom why?
daylight
It is daylight robbery and the sooner this is solved by whosoever is responsible the better. I couldn’t help but pity one Masitsela Mhlanga of the Ministry of Health last Thursday.
He was live on air at SBIS from 6:15am and he was struggling to explain to listeners why the ministry was failing to provide adequate drugs in public health institutions. There he was, literally stammering as caller after caller wanted to know why the Mbabane Government Hospital is constantly referring us to pharmacies.
We know that the pharmacies will argue that public health institutions are cheaper because they are subvented by government but that’s beside the point.
That government funds these clinics and hospitals does not justify the exorbitant prices they (pharmacies) charge us.
They should be responsible and realistic in fixing their prices but as things stand, they are ripping us off on a daily basis.
facing
The fact that government is facing challenges with regard to the supply of medical drugs should not be sweet music to their ears. We know that they are in business but inflating prices in this manner is definitely not on.
We are even told they have ‘deals’ with nurses to provide ‘customers’ for them.
“Kute emaphilisi bhuti, ngicela uye ku What What Pharmacy,” they say.
We’ve also heard they get ‘commission’ for this from the pharmacies they have ‘deals’ with. We have the global economic crisis on our hands and we cannot afford to have these people doing this to us.
Who regulates the prices charged by pharmacies? Why are we being robbed day-in and day-out by these people? Why? Are their medical drugs so special and so effective to justify such ridiculously high prices?
Where do they order their medical supplies? These are the questions that come to mind each time we step on their doors.
But we all know who is to blame for this. Government! These pharmacies are charging us whatever they want because they know we need them. We want life and since government is currently not interested in giving us life, we run to them. They know we are going to buy their products, no matter how much they charge.
The Minister of Health Benedict Xaba called journalists this week and engaged them on a conducted tour of the Central Medical Stores. Like a toddler excited over a lollipop, Benedict was in a jovial mood, boasting about the E20m drugs recently purchased by government. What he seems not to understand is that to us, the ordinary folks, it is not so much that government has purchased E20million worth of medical drugs. We need assurance that the drugs will reach us.
Government always buys drugs anyway but the problem is that these drugs never reach us, the patients.
They somehow disappear along the way because of obvious corruption within Benedict’s ministry.
Instead of dancing around in excitement, Xaba must be strategising to ensure that these drugs reach the intended destination.
We really cannot afford to have pharmacies getting rich through our already empty pockets. Government has the duty not only to provide us with medical drugs but to also protect us from these robbers posing as health care providers.
Pharmacies are after money, and nothing else. They do not give a hoot about our lives. This is evidenced by the very fact that when you arrive at a pharmacy, the so-called doctor asks: “Kubuhlungu kuphi? (Where is the pain?)”
Without even paying particular attention to where you’re pointing and what you’re saying, he simply prescribes some expensive drug and calls the next patient.
No careful examination, no diagnosing (kupopola), no nothing. They are in business and care less (if they care at all) about your health.
Further, the fact that some of these pharmacies use pseudo-doctors to ‘treat’ us is another cause for concern.
Some of these alleged doctors know zilch about providing medical services, thus putting our lives in more danger. They are hardly trained to prescribe any medication on any living soul.
Most of them are foreign nationals, and we have no problem with that, but if a background check could be conducted on them, it would probably be discovered that some never even finished secondary school in their respective countries!
favour
The Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry, headed by Jabulile Mashwama can do all of us a favour by investigating these pharmacies and how they fix their prices.  Maybe the health ministry can also come in handy and launch a probe into the qualifications of their doctors.
But, of course, government’s first priority must be to ensure that we have medical drugs in public health institutions to keep away us from running to these pharmacies in the first place.
We are too poor to have people taking advantage of us in this manner and robbing us of the little we have.