Moroccan public hospitals are desperately short of medical supplies because of a major distribution problem, Minister of Public Health Thami Khyari said in an interview published Monday. "I'm very unhappy with the distribution network within the health ministry," Khyari told the weekly L'Economiste.
"At present, many of the medicines ordered in 1998-1999 have not yet been delivered to the public hospitals, as well as those budgeted for in 1999-2000. Medicines ordered five years ago have not been delivered yet," he said.
The minister failed to say why this was the case. The Moroccan press has charged that the kingdom's public hospitals are badly managed and lack strict regulation.
"We are in the process of overhauling the system for distributing medicines, just as we're studying ways of improving emergency care in our health services," the minister said. — (AFP, Rabat)
© Agence France Presse 2000
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
