And while they're stocked up on flu shots, what about the chronic shortages of medication in hospitals and health centers across the country? Last week, you heard one mother say she had to travel to Chetumal to get an antibiotic that may have saved her son's life - but she never did get it in time.
We asked the minister if hospitals are still experiencing shortages, and tactfully deploying the art of political euphemism, he responded by saying that to call it a shortage would be an exaggeration. He told us that as soon as medication arrives in the country, they are put on pharmacy shelves as soon as possible, and the ministry is working to ensure that the shortages don't happen again.
Kevin Bernard, Minister of Health
"I would haste to answer that there is any medical shortages per se. whether the, I'm not sure what antibiotic or whatever medication was requested by KHMH or the doctors had prescribed and whether KHMH had it or not, I cannot answer to that but I can tell you this. from the time we got the tender contracts signed, over the past few months, and I had made the commitment that by the end of October we would ensure that supplies and medical equipment, pharmaceutical supplies come to this country. There have been some delays, I will not say no to that, logistically, outside of our control, outside the control of the supplier, but we have been getting medications every single day, and as they come in, they are inspected and they are distributed. Now remember, KHMH, being a statutory body, they also, we provide them a subvention, we provide them medications, and they also procure some of their own, so it depends on the pharmacy. Like I said, I don't want to answer to say that specific medication, what if that medication that that young man needed was not part of the pharmacy at the KHMH but my comment to the fact that where's there perceived exaggerated shortages, that is not far from the truth."
