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)