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Natpharm is a statutory boy mandated with securing drugs and healthcare products on behalf of State institutions. The allegedly controversial tender translates into 50 million latex gloves.
Health officials in the sector are calling for the reversal of the tender and have it advertised again since it did not specify the type of latex gloves being tendered for.
“There are two types of gloves used in the medical healthcare sector.
“Powdered latex gloves and non-powdered latex gloves.
“The Natpharm tender did not specify the type of latex gloves to be supplied.
“The whole purpose of a tender is to settle for the lowest possible cost to spend when purchasing products.
“It is common international best practice now that powdered latex gloves are no longer being used in developed countries.
“It is, however, generally known that non-powdered latex gloves have a significantly higher price than powdered gloves and failure by NatPharm to specify the type of gloves to be supplied automatically makes the tender process flawed,” explained a source.
Healthcare workers in the country are still using the powdered latex gloves, which are thinner, and it has become common practice in the health sector that health workers wear a pair of gloves on each hand when attending to patients.
In Government health facilities, health workers use four gloves when attending to patients meaning that whatever inventory is ordered, it is used as twice as much.
Generally, the powdered latex gloves imported into the country are being brought in cheaply from Asia, particularly from Malaysia, where a number of brands of the product emanate from.
United States-based Johns Hopkins Hospital in its premises in Baltimore was among some the first internationally renowned health institutions to ban the use of latex gloves over reports that such gloves cause allergic reactions (anaphylaxis), which could be fatal.
Health experts note that latex risk is exacerbated by gloves coated in cornstarch powder — because the powder absorbs latex proteins and emits them in dust as healthcare workers pull the gloves on and off.
In the United Kingdom, the National Health Services Purchasing and Supply Agency (PASA) stopped buying powdered latex gloves a few years ago.
One industry source told this paper that Africa and Zimbabwe in particular has become a dumping ground for many health care products which are no longer being used in other developed countries.
Minister of Health Dr Henry Madzorera told this paper that Zimbabwe deliberately uses powdered gloves so that they slide in easily.
“As a ministry we have policies in place and advisors. In Zimbabwe we are still using powdered gloves.
“Sometimes, the gloves are imported without powder and we powder them locally.
“As for the issue of the NatPharm tender I will not comment on that since NatPharm are the experts mandated by Government to deal with those issues,” explained Dr Madzorera.-The Sunday Mail
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