The Government of Swaziland / eSwatini has cut budgets
for public health services across the kingdom and rural areas in particular are
suffering, according to the
latest report from the World Health Organisation (WHO).
WHO reported there were not enough doctors, nurses and
support staff. The report comes at a time when nurses
have been demonstrating across Swaziland to draw attention to the crisis in
the health service.
WHO recently conducted the Universal Health Coverage
(UHC) scoping exercise in Swaziland. Its report
just published stated, ‘The country has inadequate health workforce in both
numbers and skills. The distribution of health workforce is also skewed in
favour of urban areas with some rural health facilities having staffing gaps.
Other health workforce challenges include; retention of skilled staff due to
frequent rotation of workers especially nurses; and government absorption of
donor funded positions.’
WHO added, ‘The distribution of health facilities and access to
essential health services create inequities between rural and urban populations.’
In Swaziland about 76 percent of the estimated 1. 3 million population
live in rural areas.
The United Nations International
Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF)
in an analysis of Swaziland’s national budget for 2017/18 revealed the
Ministry of Health (MoH) was allocated E1.85 billion, representing 9.1 percent
of the total budget and 3.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). The
allocation represented a 9.2 percent nominal decline from the E2.04 billion
allocated in the 2016/17 financial year.
In real terms, the allocation to the MoH declined by
15.7 percent from E1.94 billion to E1.63 billion mainly because the government had
financial difficulties.
UNICEF reported, ‘The 2017/18 allocation significantly
falls short of the requirements in the sector.’ It estimated a minimum of E2.5
billion would be required in 2017/18 ‘to ensure an equitable minimum package of
healthcare services for all Swazis’.
In the 2018/19 budget heath was allocated E2 billion.
Public health services in Swaziland are in meltdown with
reports that hospitals
cannot afford to feed patients and vital medicines have run out – all because
the government failed to pay suppliers.
In September 2018 it was reported at least six
children in Swaziland had died from diarrhoea and many more were sick
because the government was broke and could not pay for vaccines. It would cost
US$6 for the vaccine to immunise a child.
Medicines of all sorts have run out in public
hospitals and health clinics across Swaziland. Nurses
have been protesting to draw attention to the crisis.
In June 2018 it was revealed there were only
12 working public ambulances in the whole of Swaziland because the
government failed to maintain them. It had bought no new ambulances since 2013.
See also
Swaziland
nurses picket, drugs run out, lives put at risk as government fails to pay
suppliers
https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/08/swaziland-nurses-picket-drugs-run-out.html
Medicine shortage: five die
http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2017/06/medicine-shortage-five-die.html
Medicine shortage: five die
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