Eswatini MP’s ponder no-confidence vote in wake of shortage of essential medicines in hospitals. 

Some MPs in Eswatini believe that an Executive vote of no confidence the best way to address the medicine shortage in public hospitals (MPs).

As a result of the lack of medical drugs, the MPs expressed their displeasure and irritation with the government's response. Some MPs were interviewed for this publication in an effort to learn more about the issues facing the people they were elected to represent and what they thought would be a solution. The questionnaire was sent to parliamentarians in response to a petition by healthcare workers to Lizzie Nkosi, Minister of Health, and Cleopas Sipho Dlamini, Prime Minister.

Workers in hospitals across the country recently held a strike over a lack of pharmaceutical supplies. They were organized under the Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU), which was joined by the National Public Service as well as Allied Workers Union (NAPSAWU). As previously reported in this newspaper, the Raleigh Memorial Hospital (RFM) has 28 medications out of stock. 

There was a shortage of health facilities around the country, according to several of the MPs. Robert Magongo, the MP for Motshane Constituency, stated that there was a drug shortage and that members of the public had sought his aid in purchasing medication. Only a motion of no confidence with in Executive, Magongo added, was the only way to get an acceptable healthcare system. "The remedy is a parliamentary vote," he stated. Also, Lutfo Dlamini, MP for Ndzingeni Constituency, questioned why certain stock had been deemed obsolete although there was a severe scarcity of pharmaceuticals in the country's hospitals. That the medication was being taken and he wondered why the criminals weren't sacked for endangering the lives of people in Eswatini.