Shortage of drugs in Zimbabwean hospitals is no longer news. What is news however is when patients die outside hospitals while queuing up for drugs such as ARVs.

By Thabo Kunene, Harare

Patients suffering from diabetes, asthma, high blood pressure, migraine and malaria are said to have died while standing in long queues and waiting the whole day in some cases for drugs outside Zimbabwe hospitals.

But those who have the means don’t have to go through such an ordeal. They know where they can easily get the drugs and at a reasonable price. At one of the “backyard pharmacies.”

These pharmacies, Zimbabweans commonly call ‘backyard or bedroom pharmacies” are run by nurses employed in government hospitals and clinics.

Peanuts
The nurses who claim the government is paying them peanuts, steal the drugs, some of which are donated by UNICEF, from the hospitals and resell them in their house.

“Whatever drug you are looking for brother, you can get them in the townships. This is Zimbabwe and money talks,” says John, a very good friend of mine.

He says the drugs sold by corrupt nurses at their place range from pain killers, anti-retrovirals, anti-biotics, contraceptives and Chinese imported aphrodisiacs.

To prove his claims, John took me to one of the pharmacies, run by a nurse employed at Mpilo Central Hospital, the largest in Matabeleland province.

John told me she will not sell the drugs to someone she has never done business with before and therefore it is better that he gives the cash to her.

John said he wanted some anti-biotics for a friend who has an infection.

“Anti-biotics will cost you 20 USD, said the nurse. She took the money, went into the house and shortly after came back with the drugs wrapped in a cotton cloth.

Acceptable
This has become an acceptable way of life in Zimbabwe. It’s not even surprising anymore to find for a example a driver with a meagre salary working for the government living in a mansion while his boss is squeezed into a small house with his wife and children because he can not afford to buy his own.

Nurses are paid a monthly salary of between 200 and 300 USD,  which is nothing compared to the cost of living in the country.

“You can’t blame them for stealing those drugs from the government. Their monthly salary is peanuts,” complains a resident in the locality.

But the organisation Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, ZLHR condemned the actions of the corrupt nurses saying that by stealing ARVs they put the lives of AIDS sufferers at risk. The organisation’s project officer, Bekezela Maponda said the nurses are driven by greed and described their “backyard pharmacies” as money spinning machines.

Commuter taxi driver Mthuli Ndlovu thinks otherwise.

“Yes the nurses are corrupt but their backyard pharmacies have saved lives of many especially those who get sick at night in the townships.”

I was not surprised by his reaction after reading the sticker on his taxi – SHIT HAPPENS. Welcome to Zimbabwe comrade.