Minister Bosawai ordered immediate termination of certain health staff found to have removed medicines from provincial health facilities

The Minister of Health and Medical Services Hon. Paul Bosawai has ordered the immediate termination of certain medical staff found to have removed medicines for own good at certain provincial health facilities.

Minister Bosawai announced this in parliament as he is working to address the current medicine shortage across the country.

“Just recently, I have ordered an immediate termination of some of the staff who steal medicines from our provinces.”

“I will continue to ensure to fix all the leakages in the supply chain of our medicine and then I think we will fix this issue.”

In light of the current medicine shortage felt across the country, Minister Bosawai conveyed his apologies to those affected by the shortage.

“I, as the minister, wish to sincerely apologize to our people across Solomon Islands who are victimized by this medicine and consumable supply shortage.”

The Minister then announced his commitment to fix the shortage to restore normalcy to the medicine supply chain.

He called on those responsible to treat the payment of medicines as an emergency as they are part of saving lives.

Meanwhile the Leader of Opposition, Hon. Mathew Wale acknowledged the minister and his ministry for the steps taken to address the current shortage.

He said it is critical for the finance ministry to pay for medicines on time.

“Finance and Treasury is obviously critical to make sure that payments are no more than… it is not good when it is three months but some payments even took nearly or more than a year which affects the supply chain.”

“Suppliers will not be willing to supply when there is a delay in payment.”

He called on the health and finance ministries to pay for medicines on time to avoid the shortage of supply.

ENDS///