Councillors want probe into medicines

Councillors want probe into medicines

JAKARTA (JP): Councillors in Padang, West Sumatra, are
demanding a probe into the illegal sale of medicines due to be
given out freely by the government to needy families.

"Those medicines should be for the poor, but instead we find
them being sold on the shelves of pharmacies," councillor
Marhaeni was quoted by Antara as saying in Padang on Sunday.

Marhaeni, who sits on Commission E in charge of social
welfare, lamented that there was a clear lack of concern about
the matter from all sides, especially since the medication was
still stamped with the notice: "Free Medicine for Pre-Prosperous
Families."

Poor families who really needed the medicine were being forced
to pay for it while somebody else out there was making a profit,
she added.

She said such practices also reflected the poor state of
health care in the province.

"We should realize that our area has become a national
spectacle in terms of health because of the high number of people
suffering from contagious diseases such as rabies, tuberculosis
and malaria," she added.

Marhaeni called on offices in the provincial administration to
make a concerted effort to resolve any differences they had to
provide a better service and build infrastructures in the area of
health.

"Let build and make things better. I don't want to see the
institutions who are supposed to be responsible for eradicating
disease instead fighting with each other."(mds)