Question NW3166 to the Minister of Health
26 October 2023 - NW3166
Hlengwa, Ms MD to ask the Minister of Health
(1)Whether he has found that the 100 scooters with sidecars that were acquired in 2020 had contributed to the access to primary health care and the delivery of chronic medicine in remote areas of the Eastern Cape; if not; what is the position in this regard; if so, what total number of chronic medications were delivered to patients in the past week; (2) whether his department has found the delivery of chronic medication to be a wasteful expenditure; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what are the relevant details?
Reply:
According to the Eastern Cape Department of Health,
1. The procurement of the 100 scooters with sidecars was cancelled in July 2020 and the scooters were not delivered. Nothing was paid to the company and there was therefore no irregular, wasteful and fruitless expenditure pertaining to this matter. Access to chronic medicines by patients is through the central chronic medicines dispensing and distribution (CCMDD) programme. In the month of September 2023, the department had 390 000 chronic patients accessing their medicines on the CCMDD programme at various pick-up points in the Province.
2. The delivery of chronic medicine is not considered as a wasteful expenditure as it is an important programme and a successful intervention to bring chronic medicines to the communities especially the elderly patients in the rural areas in the Eastern Cape, closer to where they live.
END.