Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, has disclosed that some public health facilities in the country are administering fake and falsified medications to patients in the country, a development he described as a threat to health care delivery and human life.
The Health minister made this unfortunate disclosure in Kumasi when he addressed stakeholders in the health sector during the First Senior Managers Meeting of the Ghana Health Service.
The event brought together health partners, traditional leaders, and private investors in the health sector, representatives from the World Health Organization among other stakeholders.
The four-day conference, which started on the 18th April 2023, will be used to review the major issues affecting quality healthcare delivery and prescribe implementable solutions policy for the sector.
Speaking on the theme ‘Enhancing Primary Healthcare Approaches Towards Achieving Universal Health Coverage,’ the Health Minister tasked stakeholders in the sector to ensure excellence in healthcare delivery across the country.
He appealed to health workers to help fight the problem of administering fake drugs to avoid sending patients to their early grave.
He questioned the justification behind the use of unapproved medicine otherwise known as ‘fake medicine’ in treating patients in health facilities.
“I have a note on my desk from the FDA over fake medication falsified drugs usage in public health facilities and the very common one is oxytocin and I believe all of you here will know that Oxytocin dose. We are talking about maternal mortalities, and that is one drug I understand will help stop what happens after delivery. The FDA has put together the list and is seeking my approval to name and shame. So some of us are going to see ourselves in the public domain for using fake drugs. This is not the first time, about three years ago they did the same thing and reported. So what is the motivation to take in fake drugs in our own facilities not all but the FDA woman want to name and shame some of us and should that happen invariably it goes to actually distort what we are fighting for better educators with maternal health and mortalities so how are we going to solve this problem ?’’ he asked.
Medical negligence and wrong medical prescription
The minister also disclosed that the Health Ministry is overwhelmed with legal cases over its staff negligence and wrong medication prescription on duty.
He admitted before he took over six years ago the situation wasn’t that bad like today and questioned whether the health practitioners have forgotten what they were taught in health training institutions to warrant these unfortunate developments.
“What I’m seeing of late in the ministry are issues of litigation for the past four weeks or so. Almost every week we get at least one letter from the attorney general’s office that somebody has sued our staff with a problem of health care service delivery and they want us to come with information for them to go to court with. Then we refer to the Director General Dr Kumah Aboagye but I have been with you for the past six years. Earlier when I came in those things were not happening that much but now it has become something very common. So what is it, deliberate efforts to try and go to court, get somebody to take us to court or you have forgotten why you were trained to do in more efficient manner negligence or what is happening? But since you are the senior managers of what we do in health I throw this challenge on you and your strategic meetings to discuss how this problem can be resolved,” he stressed.