Waide said a doctor who worked at Port Moresby General Hospital told him it was happening there as well. Photo: Facebook / Port Moresby General Hospital
The unauthorised sale of medical drugs remains a serious and persistent concern in Papua New Guinea, undermining the availability of essential medicines in health facilities.
The East Sepik Provincial Health Authority has enforced tough new measures to stamp out the illegal street sales of medical drugs smuggled from health facilities, either within or outside the province.
RNZ Pacific's PNG correspondent Scott Waide said the tough new measures in East Sepik were brought in after people working in the system were caught.
"There's been a track-record of people being caught using the government system to syphon off medical drugs, and they end up in private clinics or they end up on the streets being sold by people who don't have any medical background at all."
Waide said he has seen antibiotics sold on the streets.
"You can tell if it's an amoxicillin capsule, it has that certain colour to it, and people who are selling it also know that it's amoxicillin, so they will tell you that they have amoxicillin capsules for sale."
Some of them were caught by police as people have been more vigilant, Waide said.
The East Sepik Provincial Health Authority says anyone found participating in these activities will face severe disciplinary action, including immediate termination.
But East Sepik is not the only province in PNG struggling with the illegal trade in medical drugs.
Waide said a doctor who worked at Port Moresby General Hospital told him it was happening there as well.
"He was seeing medicines like that ending up in smaller clinics, and being sold primarily by government workers."
Waide described it as an open secret, people knowing that these things happen.
"Over the last five to 10 years, the Health Department has tried to tighten its systems by implementing new tracking systems for medicines and all that, but there are still cracks in the systems where medicines keep being stolen," he said.
A story went viral in PNG last month after an elderly man could not be treated at Angau Memorial Hospital due to a lack of medication, which had apparently been stolen.
PNG Health Minister Elias Kapavore has said that the government "has been working throughout the year to correct systemic weaknesses that have accumulated over more than two decades".
Kapavore said the government was committed to ensuring essential medicines are available throughout Papua New Guinea.
