Outcry as Colliery’s only pharmacy closes

Fairness Moyana, Hwange Correspondent
HWANGE Colliery Company Limited (HCCL) has closed down its hospital pharmacy following the resignation of its only pharmacist leaving scores of patients, mostly company employees and their dependents, stranded.

The ailing colliery has been struggling to pay workers’ salaries for the past 36 months.

Affected workers are crying foul as they are supposed to be provided with all health services including drugs without paying cash.

The employees pay for the services through monthly deductions from their salaries.

Patients and residents mostly, colliery employees who spoke to Business Chronicle said they were instructed by medical authorities to seek drugs from other pharmacies.

“We were surprised to be told that the dispensary had been shut down hence we could not access medicine and we are supposed to buy it from a private pharmacy in Empumalanga. This has left a lot of us stranded as we were relying entirely on the hospital to provide medication,” said a Colliery employee who declined to be named.

A local resident, Gloria Ndlovu said closing the pharmacy had ripple effects as many people in Hwange could not afford to buy medication from private pharmacies since they were not being paid. The town has only one private pharmacy which is in Empumalanga.

The pharmacist is said to have gone to Namibia in search of greener pastures after being frustrated by non-payment of salaries.

“Hwange Colliery has lost many professionals particularly from the medical services department as a result of its failure to pay salaries. Many of them are now working in Namibia.

The implications of these developments have been devastating with the hospital being forced to shut down four of its seven wards,” said a resident.

Last year the hospital lost more than 40 health professionals among them nurses, doctors and dentists, a move that crippled service delivery.

Confirming the development, HCC managing director, Engineer Thomas Makore said the company was left with no choice but to shut down the pharmacy as their only pharmacist had resigned without notice.

“We are actually faced with a situation where we had to close down our pharmacy because our pharmacist resigned without giving notice. By law we are compelled to inform the Medicines Control Authority and they informed us that until we get a replacement pharmacist, we have to shut it down” said Makore.

He, however, said they had since found a replacement in the form of a locum pharmacist who would be starting duty this week.

“Yes there has been an impact as a result of the shutdown. However, we have been running around to try and minimise that and we have found somebody to be a locum pharmacist. He will start duty this week so we expect things to normalise soon,” he said.