…in pharma supply
It’s said that a supply chain – of any good or service – is only as strong as its weakest link. And in Guyana, we’re experiencing in spades, the truth of that insight in the supply of pharmaceuticals to our health sector. As we’ve pointed out before, after almost two years of concocting all kinds of “Jimmy Cock and Ram Goat” stories, the Government health officials have finally confessed to widespread grave shortages of critical drugs. Obviously, this had doomed many Guyanese to earlier deaths, than if they’d been treated with those drugs.
But what’s really the “weakest link”, so perhaps even now official interventions may keep us from sliding back into the conditions that precipitated the Plague in medieval times. Is it really just poor inventory control? Lack of warehouse space – or warehouses not located close enough to Georgetown Hospital? Lack of an integrated purchasing system? Is it really a shipping and delivery problem, starting with drugs stuck at wharves?
We could keep on regurgitating the excuses the Government keeps spewing. But you and I, Dear Reader, know they’re only playing ducks and drakes around the real problem. And that problem is the now Government Ministers and officials – from the parties that used to be in the Opposition – are caught with their old BS they issued about the PPP giving out “sweetheart” pharma contracts to “friends”.
It’s not that they fell for their own BS! But starting with the premise of “friends with benefits”, they farmed out the Pharma to their own “political investors” who expected healthy “returns on investments” (ROI)! They threw out the old prequalification criteria – ignoring these were in accordance to WHO and World Bank specifications for rigorous proper supply chain performance in pharma!
So, we returned to the Neanderthal era practices of fellas showing up with plastic bags of pharma, fresh off the plane after procuring “about to be expired” drugs from abroad. So, we had fellas with no warehouse to properly store temperature-sensitive medicines – and just throwing them in their meat freezers! No wonder, Guyanese mortuary freezers are overflowing!
So, the problem, Dear Readers, is greed of the new Government officials destroying any scruples that might’ve existed and placing the health of the Guyanese public in the hands of carpetbaggers. How many more contracts will be given to bottom-house operators before Guyanese start getting het up about health officials playing Russian Roulette with their lives?
While your Eyewitness agrees with the protests against the rotten parking meter deal, this abandonment of all standards to maintain the integrity of the pharma supply chain represents a greater danger to our nation.
Act up!!
…in business
Any business is only as good as its people. Lots of folks think, it’s the product, or the price or a host of other factors. Not that they aren’t important – but ultimately, it’s the company’s employees that will make or break the venture. If they don’t have their heart in the operation, that business is doomed. When there are absolutely no alternatives and starvation is the only option to the business maybe the employees will put out – but the moment that changes, it’s “outa here!”.
And that’s really the nub of the problem with GuySuCo. Not much really changed from the days of slavery and indentureship. Even though the colour of the faces of the “overseers” changed over the years, their attitude to the workers remained constant: grind them into the dirt and throw them out like bagasse.
We see this illustrated by the Minister of Agriculture insisting there isn’t a need to conduct a social assessment before closing down the estates!!
Chattel labour redux!
…in nationalism
Your Eyewitness isn’t too much for bars. But he was invited to this Super Bowl party at one. He went. He watched. He wept.
He couldn’t believe the fake accents and the fake enthusiasm that permeated the joint.
Neo-neo colonialism?
