Gauteng psychiatric drug shortage puts staff and patients at risk

Gauteng’s public psychiatric wards are running short of key medication and staff say the strain is showing, Joburg Etc reports.

Psychiatric wards are the hardest hit. Olanzapine, quetiapine, lorazepam and injectable sedatives are among the medicines in short supply, according to Sowetan. A nurse at Weskoppies Psychiatric Hospital said it becomes overwhelming when an aggressive patient needs an injectable sedative and none is available.

A Tshwane hospital manager said relapsed patients become aggressive towards staff and other patients. An Ekurhuleni clinic nurse said patients relapse into suspicion and paranoia without their medication. Little Eden, an Ekurhuleni organisation caring for about 300 people with profound disabilities, spent nearly R150 000 on private medication in three months.

Psychiatrist Dr Kali Tricoridis said: ‘You destroy an entire treatment cycle.’ Bringing a patient back to a therapeutic dose can take weeks.

The department’s spokesperson, Foster Mohale, said suppliers have committed to filling outstanding orders by the end of November and keeping at least two months’ buffer stock from December. Suppliers have cited manufacturing delays over active pharmaceutical ingredients, he said. He also linked the disruption to the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz, according to TimesLIVE.

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