LASHKARGAH (SW): Local health department in Helmand province has blamed foreign aid agency ACTD for providing 76 hospitals with substandard medicine since last two years.
Dr. Mohammad Tawoos Ashraf Naderi, chief monitor of medicines in Helmand told Salam Watandar that the issue has been under investigation for a while now. He asserted that ACTD signed a contract with the Helmand Health Department to deliver medicine to the districts and the provincial capital. “They have been supplying substandard and useless medicine for the past two years”, he alleged.
He went on to say that ACTD have provided them with fabricated documents that do not match the brand names with the manufacturers marked in the papers.
Dr. Shahzad Haleem, local head for the ACTD however, denied the allegations. He said some medicine can be less effective but they procured the medicine from those companies that have got the licenses from the Provincial Health Department.
The locals find themselves in the middle of this hassle. Mohammad Nabi is one such local who said he kept visiting public hospital for almost a year for the treatment of his wife but to no avail. He added that after losing hope, he took his wife to Pakistan where a single prescription cured the illness of his wife.
Commenting on the issue, Dr. Ismael Kawsi, spokesman for the Ministry of Public Health, said if the allegations prove right, the responsible organization would face legal action.
ENDS
