Eliminate middlemen from medical supplies, says eye specialist Ndume

Ophthalmologist and volunteer surgeon Dr Helena Ndume has called for the elimination of middlemen from providing medical services to the government.

Ndume said this on Wednesday during a blindness prevention campaign held at Onandjokwe Hospital at Oniipa in the Oshikoto region, were the mission is to restore the eyesight of 500 patients.

She indicated that if the government eliminates middlemen there will be no need to beg for donations and that the country will be less dependent.

“The government gives so much money for the procurement of medicine, but the middlemen inflate the prices and then there is nothing left, they do not have humility because you find them on social media flexing their luxurious lifestyles when we do not have medicine in the hospitals,” she said.

Ndume stated that more medical supplies will be available and sufficient for citizens by cutting out middlemen from providing medical services to the state.

“I am putting my head on the chopping block but something has to be done at the Central Medical Stores, investigations have to be done if we want this process to go smoothly of procuring directly from the companies,” said Ndume.

Ndume’s call comes after the minister of health and social services, Dr Esperance Luvindao, this week announced that since it opted to engage medicine suppliers directly, instead of the normal procurement system, her ministry had potentially saved about N$221 million.

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