A SINGLE tablet of Panadol costs about $3 per tablet in Gizo, Western Province as the Panadol shortage continues to hit the province.
Shortages of this particular drug have hit the main provincial hospital in Gizo since last month.
For most of the rural clinics and area health centres, the situation is also the same.
Most patients in need of Panadol at the Gizo pharmacy have been told that Panadol has run out.
As a result, most patients have been forced to buy tablets of Panadol in shops at Gizo. A tablet normally costs a dollar or two.
However, there are shops selling a tablet of Panadol for $3.00, costing rural customers and those who are sick a good amount of money just to buy the drug.
A father said the shortage had also forced shops to increase the cost of a Panadol tablet or its packet.
The father, Daxie Leko, said the action by the ministry of health in ensuring there is timely distribution of drugs throughout the country is now costing all the rural people.
“This is denying the rural population the much-needed drug,” he said.
The father said he was forced to buy six tablets for his sick son. “And that costs me around $18.00 in one of the shops in Gizo. For a rural dweller, this is a lot of money,” he said.
The shortage of drugs has caused so much frustration and disappointment for many patients.
Others have been forced to ask their relatives in Honiara to buy medicine for them at the private pharmacies.
Some of the drugs for those people with hypertension are also out of stock in Gizo.
In Gizo, there are currently no private pharmacies operating and this also affects the availability of medical drugs.
Most of the drugs are normally distributed by the medical store in Honiara.
The Gizo Hospital Administration does not have any control over the quick procurement of drugs to the hospital and the rural clinics.
By MOFFAT MAMU
