By Musa Mdluli

MBABANE:Prime Minister Russell Mmiso Dlamini says Government is prioritizing the health crisis and working towards addressing the shortage of drugs in public hospitals.

The PM shared these sentiments on Friday when delivering the Government First Year in Office Performance Report at the Cabinet Offices.

“Government acknowledges the gravity of the crisis in the health sector. To that extent, Government has charged the Ministry of Health to transform the Central Medical Stores into a parastatal to improve efficiencies and the procurement and distribution of pharmaceuticals as well as eliminate all forms of corruption and pilferage within the supply chain mechanism. Government rehabilitated, expanded and launched a number of health facilities, including kaZondwako Clinic, which now has a maternity wing, Ndunazithini Clinic, which is new, the Hlathikhulu Public Health Unit, the new High Dependency Unit at Manzini Government Hospital and the National Psychiatric Referral Hospital to ease congestion at the facility”, he said.

The Prime Minister said in addition, Government procured and distributed eight(8) Ambulances to selected health centres and hospitals to strengthen emergency response. 

“Three theaters were operationalized at the new Referral and Emergency wing at Mbabane Government Hospital.While good progress has been made to attain and sustain the 95-95-95 UNAIDS target, statistics indicate that the fight against HIV is far from over and more work needs to be done as more than 4 000 new infections are still recorded annually, particularly amongst the youth,” said the Prime Minister.

On another note, the PM said Government, through the National Emergency Response Council on HIV/AIDS(NERCHA), developed and launched the National Strategic Framework for HIV/AIDS, which will sustain the gains made and further intensify the fight against HIV and AIDS way into the future.

“In addition to the fight against HIV and AIDS, this strategic framework recognises the resurgence of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) and their impact. NCDs have emerged as a serious concern due to the increase in the number of people, including children being affected by NCDs.Government has charged NERCHA and the Ministry of Health to prioritise NCDs and consider if NCDs should not be declared a national emergency. Government has initiated resource mobilisation to support the NCD programme,” he said.