Pharmacies holding patients to ransom

to take for some time and stop when feeling better.
Unlike antibiotics that require one to take a full course, ARVs are to be taken for the rest of life.
Strict adherence is to be followed as it is a prerequisite to do so. Non-adherence will result in the virus mutating, or in simpler terms multiplying and getting difficult to treat.
HIV is not curable but is manageable so the treatment acts like a suppression of the virus and thus when not adhered to can find a space to grow.
Doctors do not hurry to put one on ARVs without having had enough counselling.
It is better not to be on ART than to default.
A counsellor at one central hospital said the rigorous test of counselling was meant to prepare one for the new life, hence the time taken on counselling sessions.
People on the Government programme have not experienced the difficulty that private patients have encountered in recent months.
At first, I thought it was an isolated case that did not warrant one getting to the bottom of the issue.
But after getting several e-mails and phone calls on the same issue, I realised that there was a problem brewing.
Private patients are those who buy ARVs on their own after being referred by doctors. They can either use cash or medical aid schemes.
Now the problem with some medical aid schemes is that they are only accepted in certain pharmacies.
It is understandable, but the pharmacies need to work in good faith just like hospitals are required to.
Not all hospitals can dispense ARVs since it is a specialised field.
It could ease the corruption that is slowly creeping in some of the pharmacies if some private hospitals could dispense too.
A lady who has been on ART for three years said she was afraid that we could slip back to the Zim-dollar era where people on ARVs faced severe challenges.
She said something had to be done urgently as she sees the same old tricks of ‘artificial shortages’ being created by some unscrupulous pharmacies.
“My dear, I have been through very bad patches. I would not like to relive the 2008 era where I depended on the mercy of the bank teller and from there had to beg the pharmacy to get medication,” she said.
“I could go for a month without medication, which is dangerous. I developed resistance and ended up using second-line drugs, which are expensive,” she added.
“Now with some pharmacies playing, God we can never be assured of health for all,” she said.
“I cannot keep quiet as this means I have to be changed from the current drugs if I am to default. I fully understand the consequences of defaulting and cannot have someone putting my life in danger,” the woman said.
The woman said she has found it difficult to procure the drugs that she uses from the same pharmacy she has used since the multi-currency regime started.
She said that every time she needed to buy medication, the pharmacy gave the excuse that the combined drug was out of stock but could still give the equivalent but,in three separate units, which was not fair.
“The combined drug costs more and the pharmacies are making a killing.
“I have a limit to my medical bill even though I am on medical aid. I end up with a shortfall each month and I have to pay that, yet I am supposed to get the combined drug, which is affordable,” she said.
The combined drug known as duovir costs US$30 while the three separate drugs that should make the same, cost anything ranging from US$57 to US$62, depending on the pharmacy.
A man from Mufakose who said his wife and child were on ART said it is high time people living positively came together as a voice and fought against the injustice.
He said that he was on the Government programme but had requested that he be transferred to his company’s medical aid scheme since it now catered for such.
He said he was regretting it as the pharmacies were not as reliable as the Government scheme where he was assured of his supply.
“When I go to get my medication, at times I am frustrated to be told that it is out of stock. It is after hunting from pharmacy to pharmacy that I finally get it but for a price too dear,” said the father of three.
He said that the pharmacies were not helpful as they would not even phone around to get it for him.
“In most instances I end up getting, lamuvidine, nevirapine and zidovudine as separate drugs and this means taking three tablets where I was used to taking just one tablet which is a combination of all three,” he said with concern. The trend appears true because this writer has on two occasions been through the same experience.
Using medical aid means I have paid a contribution and this has a ceiling to what one can use on ART.
If dispensing pharmacies end up blaming their suppliers this can be a ploy to ‘steal’ from their clients
A third force of making quick bucks could be the ulterior motive.
Why would they not seek new suppliers if they have experienced the same bottlenecks month in, month out with the regular supplier who fails to meet the requirements?
Alternatively, local pharmaceutical companies that manufacture ARVs, must be given the full backing they need in order to meet the local needs.
For the country to rely on foreign sources, which are not reliable or are out to make more by artificial shortages is inhuman. People in positions of decision making cannot not hold their supposed clients to ransom.
A scientist speaking on condition of anonymity said that it is not surprising that this is happening.
He pointed out that for as long as we do not develop our own pharmaceutical industry to self-reliance, then we stood the chance of being abused.
“Imperialism and capitalism work hand in hand, the developed world is the kingpin and the developing countries are their markets.
“They can do whatever they want with lives as they can create artificial shortages, the answer is for the local pharmaceutical companies to grow into a force to reckon with and stop relying on them,” he said.
Another complainant said that she now has her drugs sent from abroad because every month she needed more money to procure the same drugs and her sisters abroad thought she was lying.
“My sisters could not understand why a drug that costs US$30 would be bought for double the price, so, when I asked for more they thought I was lying,” she said.
“They have thus resorted to sending me enough when they visit since someone comes home now and again,” she said.
“I use duovir but every time I need to buy the triple dose I find that they do not have it in stock.
“They have lamuvidine and zidovudine as a combination, so nevirapine comes as a separate drug on its own, and that is expensive. They should stock all the drugs for their clients,” she noted.
With ARVs, it is a drug that I think the Government should come up with laws and regulations that will protect locals as greedy people have to be curbed from this practice which if left unchecked could spread.
At the time of going to print, NAC had not responded to questions raised on the subject.
True, pharmacies are in business but they should not make people’s lives endangered business.
In all you get, may you get understanding.
Till then, God bless.
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