BusinessLive reports that the national Department of Health (DOH) is planning closer scrutiny of provincial stocks of personal protective medical equipment (PPE) and will be adding these details to a real-time system already in place for monitoring key medicines.
Despite SA’s relatively low numbers of Covid-19 cases by global standards, a shortage of PPE has already emerged as a key concern among health-care professionals. SA’s biggest doctor union, the SA Medical Association (Sama), has previously raised the alarm over a shortage of PPE as reported by its members, and last week health minister Zweli Mkhize ordered an audit of supplies in Eastern Cape as part of a national effort to shore up the province’s response to Covid-19. DOH acting director-general Anban Pillay attributed hospital-level shortages of PPE to supply-chain problems within provinces. “The supply chain needs to be more agile, and respond quickly to orders,” he indicated. The DOH has a well-established “stock visibility system” for monitoring medicine supplies and expects to start capturing PPE details on it this week, Pillay advised. In a separate development, Proudly SA announced on Monday that it has launched an online marketplace for cloth masks to connect corporate buyers with local producers.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Tamar Kahn at BusinessLive
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