Question NW45 to the Minister of Health
23 February 2024 - NW45
Makamba-Botya, Ms N to ask the Minister of Health
Whether he has been informed of the shortages of biocides, hand sanitizer and hibiscus hand soap in health facilities across the Eastern Cape; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what (a) urgent steps of intervention has he taken to address the situation and (b) are the details of the time frames put in place to curb the shortages?
Reply:
The National Department of Health (NDoH) was aware of the shortages of biocides, hand sanitizer and hibiscus (hibiscrub) hand soap in the facilities across the Eastern Cape.
a) There are interventions that the NDoH implements to ensure that there are no supply shortages at facilities. These interventions are informed by the cause of the supply challenge.
- Where the supply constraint is due to operational matters, e.g. machine breakdown, labour unrest, theft, post importation testing, etc., the NDOH would source products from alternative local suppliers with registered products using the quotation process.
- Should the supply constraint result in a longer term supply challenge, such as regulatory matters including amendments to the dossier that requires approval from South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA), including a change/addition of an active pharmaceutical ingredient source and/or manufacturing site, the transfer of ownership of dossiers which results in a change of marketing authorization, delays in the issuing of the permits for imported medicines, manufactured products requiring additional quality checks by SAHPRA, etc. and no alternative local suppliers with registered products are available; an application would be made to SAHPRA for the acquisition of unregistered medicines for human use in South Africa Act use in terms of Section 21 of the Medicines and Related Substances Act.
b) Health facilities in the Eastern Cape place their orders with the depot on a weekly basis, and the depot processes these orders efficiently with a lead time of a week.
In most cases including the recently reported case, the medicines supply challenges are transient in that an item may be reported as out of stock and soon after the item is back on stock.
Currently, there are no the shortages of biocides, hand sanitizers and hibiscus hand soap in health facilities across the Eastern Cape. The table below shows the current availability of the items in the Eastern Cape health facilities including the depots:
|
Item Description |
Quantity on stock |
Stock Provision in Months |
|
Hibiscus (Hibiscrub) Hand Soap 500ml |
6 826 |
2.5 months’ supply |
|
Hand sanitizer without emollient 500ml |
8 590 |
4 months’ supply |
|
Biocide 100s |
6 060 |
2 months’ supply |
Table 1. Stock on hand of selected items as at 12 February 2024
END.