NCOP
FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NO. 653
DATE OF PUBLICATION IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: 25 November 2011
(INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO. 39)
Mr D Joseph (DA-WC) to ask the Minister of Health:
(1) Whether any (a) medication, (b) consumables or (c) equipment have
been destroyed in each province (i) in (aa) 2009 and (bb) 2010 and
(ii) from 1 January 2011 up to the latest specified date for which
information is available; if not, what is the position in this regard;
if so, what (aaa) were the reasons and (bbb) was the value in each
case;
(2) (a) what are the names of each product that was destroyed in each
case and (b) in respect of what treatment were these medications used?
CW803E
REPLY:
The reasons for medication being destroyed are related to change in
treatment regimens receipt of short-dated stock. Medication in emergency
trolleys sometimes expire and hence have to be discarded. Provinces are
expected to check medicines expiry upon receipt of stock from suppliers. If
this is not done, then drugs expire and have to be discarded.
According to our Provincial Departments of Health, the following are the
responses to the questions:
Free State:
1) The total value of expired medicine is â
2009/10 = R 1,019,061.84
2010/11 = R 4,917,329.34
2011/12 = R 8,068,932.87
2) Only a sample of expired medicines is provided due to the high volume
of disposal. A sample list of equipment disposed of and sold since
2009 is also available.
Gauteng:
1) (a) Expired Medicines & breakages destroyed:
|Period |Turnover |Expired |% of |
| | |medicines and|turnover |
| | |breakages | |
|Year ending 31 March |1, 549, 177, 992 |215, 242 |0,013 |
|2009 | | | |
|Year ending 31 March |2, 261, 431, 896 |474, 508 |0.16 |
|2010 | | | |
|Year ending 31 March |2, 666, 262, 368 |3, 404, 258 |0,12 |
|2011 | | | |
|Year ending 31 March |1, 585, 390, 563.98|2, 063,644 |0,13 |
|2012 to end October 2011| | | |
(c) Equipment
(i) (aa) 2009 â None
(bb) 2010
|Commodity |Classificatio|Method |Value |Date |
| |n | | | |
|Other Machinery & |Major |Scrapping |15Â 286 000 |2010/2011|
|Equipment | | | | |
|Other Machinery & |Minor |Scrapping |5Â 184 000 |2010/2011|
|Equipment | | | | |
|Total | | |20 470 000 | |
(ii) From 1 January 2011 up to the latest specified date for which
information is available
|Commodity |Classificatio|Method |Value |Date |
| |n | | | |
|Other Machinery & |Major |Scrapping |511Â 037.96 |22/8/2011|
|Equipment | | | | |
|Other Machinery & |Minor |Scrapping |10Â 485.21 |22/8/2011|
|Equipment | | | | |
|Total | | |521Â 523.17 | |
2) (a) The medicines are a mixture of tablets, capsules,
injections, creams and ointments used for various conditions.
Details are documented and kept at the various institutions.
Such information is kept and is available for a period of up to
5 years.
Limpopo:
In Limpopo province, expired Medication and consumables are being destroyed
in all the 3 years 2009, 2010 and in 2011, up to November 2011. Expired
medicines are managed by the manager Quality Assurance at the provincial
office. Clinics have to return expired stock to the hospitals and
hospital management has to submit reports on a quarterly basis through the
board of survey to Provincial Pharmaceutical Services. Expired medicines
are only disposed of once permission is granted by the Head of the
Department. The appointed Waste Management service provider is then
instructed to collect the expired stock and dispose of it in the correct
manner.
Of the 40 hospitals in Limpopo, 23 have already received approval to
dispose of expired stock, and the stock has been lifted up (removed) from
facilities by the Waste Management Company. 8 hospitals are in the process
of receiving approval, while the remaining 9 hospitals are being assisted
to get the necessary documentation required to get approval.
Up to date R1Â 688Â 511 total cost of expired medication and consumables has
been disposed of in the 2011/2012 financial year. This may include expired
stock from previous years. Individual names of disposed items would be
difficult to know as they are already disposed. These include medicines,
tablets and consumables used for various kinds of medical conditions, such
as medical emergencies (Angina Pectoris, Myocardial infarcts), as well as
surgical conditions.
Mpumalanga:
Mpumalanga have provided a comprehensive list per hospital of medicines,
consumables and equipments that have been destroyed to the estimated value
of R 849,791,460.74
Northern Cape:
During the 2009, 2010 and 2011 years the various facilities (hospitals,
Community Health Centres and Primary Health Clinics) have destroyed
medication. In most instances the reasons were due to expired stock and
vaccines that were exposed to extreme weather conditions.
For the above periods the approximate values are as follows:
2009. R 288,221.00
2010. R 651,269.00
2011. R 328,940.00
Approximate total written off: R 1,268,430.00
Although the amounts are minimal, the list of items is huge. Attached list
is a summary of the Provinceâs items that were written off during said
years. These products were used to combat chronic diseases, acute
infections/conditions and various other items that form part of the
emergency trays of facilities.
|NORTHERN CAPE | | |
|ITEMS | ITEMS |ITEMS |
|2011 |2010 |2009 |
|Amphoteracin B 50mg amps |Spironolactone 25mg 84's|Metronidazole syrup |
| | |100ml |
|Doxycycline 100mg tabs 14's |Spironolactone 25mg 56's|Beclomethasone inhaler |
| | |50mg |
|Folic acid 5mg 100's |Benzathine Penicillin |Metformin 500mg 56's |
| |1.2MU | |
|Promethazine 10mg 500's |Aminophylline 250mg/ml |Phenoxymethylpenicillin |
| |amp |250mg 20's |
|Heparin 1000IU amps |Dapsone 100mg tabs |Biperiden 2mg 56's |
|Atropine 0.5mg vial |Hyoscine amps |Glibenclamide 5mg 28's |
|Polio vial |Gentian violet |Atropine 0.5mg vial |
|Methyl prednisolone acetate |Beclomethasone aq spray |Verapamil inj 2.5mg/ml |
|40mg vial | |2ml |
|Salbutamol inj 0.5mg |Thiamine 100mg 100's |Vitamin K 2mg/0.2ml |
|Methyldopa 250mg 84's |Doxycycline 100mg tabs |Sod Bicarbonate 8.5% |
| |14's | |
|Cefalexin 250mg 20's |Albendazole syrup 20ml |Clotrimazole vag cream |
| | |50g |
|ketakonazole tabs 200mg |Glycerin suppositories |Potassium Chloride 15% |
| |12's |amps |
|Spironolactone 25mg 84's | |Naloxone 0.4mg/ml |
|Furosemide 40mg tabs 28's | |Bupivacaine 50mg vials |
|Cimetidine 400mg 60's | |Betamethasone 4mg inj |
|Aserbine 50g cream | |Dopamine amps |
|Propranolol 10mg 56's | |Adrenaline amps |
|Digoxin 0.25mg tabs 28's | |Griseofulvin 125mg 100's|
|Heparin 2500IU 5ml | | |
North West:
(1) Medication and surgical disposables have been disposed off in the
North West Province in 2009, 2010 and up to September 2011.
Medicines were disposed off because they had exceeded the expiry date.
The value of medicines disposed of is as follows:-
|2009 |2010 |2011 |
|R1,741,148-75 |R1,795,039-17 |R1,681,058-82 |
(2) Due to limited time for response to this question and the amount of
items that have been disposed off since 2009 to date, the consolidated
list from all the facilities which contains all the items disposed off
during the period could not be compiled in time.
These medications are used for a variety of conditions such as:
⢠Acute conditions such as headache, fever, diarrhoea, respiratory
tract infection
⢠Chronic medical conditions such as high blood pressure,
diabetes, asthma, psychiatric conditions
⢠Inflammatory and musculo-skeletal conditions such as gout,
arthritis conditions.
⢠Injuries such as fractures, wounds, abrasions
⢠Surgical disposables which were disposed off were for the
treatment of the conditions mentioned above.
Western: Cape:
1) Medication, consumables and equipment were disposed of in each of the
financial years 2009/10, 2010/11 and from 1 April 2011 to 30 September
2011.
The equipment was not necessarily destroyed but in some cases, is sold
as equipment and in others as scrap.
(aaa) Medication, consumables and equipment are disposed of
because it has either passed the expiry date, redundant stock,
obsolete or broken making it useless to the department.
(bbb) The values of the items disposed of for the periods as indicated
are as follows:
|PERIODS |Major |Minor |Pharmaceutica|Other |TOTALS |
| |Assets |Assets |ls |consumables | |
|2009/ 2010 |R80 235 |R19 522 |R4 000 |R397 000 |R100 158 |
| |000 |000 | | |000 |
|2010/ 2011 |R84 738 |R23 434 |R896 000 |R666 000 |R109 734 |
| |000 |000 | | |000 |
|01 April to|R20 426 |R6 282 000|R1 350 000 |R168 000 |R28 226 000|
|30 |000 | | | | |
|September | | | | | |
|2011 | | | | | |
2) (a) & (b): Current records do not allow us to determine what products
were disposed of in each case and we are not able to indicate what the
products were used for.
END.