COMMENTARY: By Scott Waide

In Lae City, Papua New Guinea’s second-largest city, there are seven urban clinics, each serving between 100 and 150 patients a day.  They get their medical supplies form the Government Area Medical Store (AMS) in Lae.

The AMS  in Lae also supplies the Highlands and the rest of Momase.

For the last six years, staff at the clinics have  been battling  medicine shortages.  You can see,  first hand,  how the medicine shortage affects people in Lae.

READ MORE: PNG faces ‘catastrophe’ if no crisis action taken

At Buimo Clinic on Friday,  a mother and baby came in  for treatment.  She  was  told that the last bottles of Amoxicillin suspensions would be given for her child  and that she  would have to go to a pharmacy to complete the treatment course.

The woman’s name is Merut Kilamu.  She lives with her family at Bundi Camp in Lae.  She is not just a statistic.  She is a real person who is bearing the brunt of the ongoing medicine shortages.

-Partners-

“Sometimes, we are able to buy the medicine,” she says. “Other times,  when we don’t have the money, we can’t buy what we need.”

Patients go from the clinics to  Angau Hospital in the hope that they will get  the medicines  they need. But Angau can’t handle the numbers.  Hospital staff have even  posted on Facebook saying they too need the basic supplies of antibiotics, antimalarial drugs and consumables like gauze, gloves and syringes.

Hospitals and clinics have become little more than prescription factories channeling their patients to pharmacies who charge the patients upwards of K40 (about NZ$18) for medicines. Pharmacies are profiting from the desperation and ill health of the Papua New Guineans.

Prices increased
In 2017, when clinics ran out of antimalarial drugs, pharmacies increased the prices.

In some instances, officers in charge of clinics felt the need to negotiate with pharmacies to keep their prices within an affordable range.  It is difficult for staff in smaller clinics to send away patients knowing they can’t afford  to pay for medicines.

“Sometimes, we can’t send them away. Staff have to fork out the money to help them pay,” says Miriam Key, nurse manager at Buimo  clinic.

This is a nationwide medicine shortage!

As much as  the politicians dislike it, social media gives a pretty accurate dashboard view of the health system from the end user.  Charles Lee posted on Facebook about how the medicine shortage was affecting his family in Mt Hagen.

“Relatives in Hagen have flown to POM to seek medical treatment because of a shortage of drugs in Hagen.”

His post drew more than 20 comments.

Gloria Willie  said from Mt Hagen:

“They just discharged a relative from ICU and we are taking her to Kundjip (Jiwaka Province)  today and if they are not allowed to receive  medical attention then, we are also planning to bring her to port Moresby. It is really frustrating.  But because of our loved ones, we are trying any possible way to have them treated.”

‘Stay at home’
Melissa Pela responded saying:

“Same here in Kavieng. Patients told to buy Panadol and keep at home. If you feel something like fever/running nose etc.. just take it. They say treat it before it becomes serious because there is simply no medicine.”

The officer in charge of Barevaturu clinic in Oro Province, Nigel Tahima,  said by phone,  the  they are seeing an increase in the number of patients  because other clinics just don’t have  medicine.

The reports are flooding in from all over the country. There are too many to mention in one blog post.

If urban clinics are a gauge to measure the flow of medicines from the AMS to the patient, you can imagine what rural clinics are going through.

They are too far from the AMSs and too far to adequately monitor. The only way to get an understanding of their problems is when staff make contact or when you go there.

Scott Waide’s blog columns are frequently published by Asia Pacific Report with permission. He is also EMTV deputy news editor based in Lae.

By Lian Buan in Manila

The camp of Vice President Leni Robredo is keen on pushing for the public disclosure of President Rodrigo Duterte’s state of health, saying they trust what the President says about the results of his medical tests.

“We respect his declaration,” Robredo’s spokesperson Barry Gutierrez said yesterday.

Duterte told his Cabinet members in a meeting on Monday night that his recent medical tests came back negative for cancer.

READ  MORE: President’s health – touchy subject for Duterte, public concern for constitution

Gutierrez said it was up to the President to decide when to disclose his state of health.

“The Vice-President understands that the President also took the oath, he understands the Constitution, and he should know his obligations under the Constitution with respect to disclosure on his true state of health,” Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez added in Filipino: “We are happy that the President is well. The VP has said that it’s clear nobody wants the President to be sick, we want him healthy, we want him working. So if he says it’s like that, then I suppose we must respect it.”

State of health
Duterte had revealed undergoing endoscopy or colonoscopy, where doctors found a “growth”. Duterte said he would inform the public if he had cancer.

The 1987 Constitution states that the President must disclose the state of his health if he has a “serious illness”.

Asked for his legal opinion, Solicitor-General Jose Calida dismissed the topic.

“That’s not the business of the Solicitor-General to find out the health of anybody,” Calida said yesterday, adding that “I’m not a busybody, I mind my own business.”

Section 8, Article VII, of the 1987 Constitution says the vice-president shall serve as the president “in case of death, permanent disability, removal from office, or resignation” of the latter. The VP will serve only the president’s unexpired term.

When Duterte revealed he had undergone colonoscopy, the President said he would not want Robredo to take over the presidency because “she is really weak”. The Vice-President responded, saying the President should just get to work instead of insulting her.

Draft rejected
On Monday, it was revealed that the draft constitution authored by House Speaker Gloria Arroyo skipped the Vice-President in the line of succession during the proposed transition to a federal system.

The Senate immediately shot down the House draft.

“To introduce an amendment, they need 3/4 vote in both the House and the Senate, and I’m confident we have enough right-thinking senators who will not follow that kind of proposal,” Gutierrez said.

The Robredo camp had earlier slammed the proposal and its basis as “outright ridiculous”.

Lian Buan is a journalist with the independent news website Rappler.