imbabwe’s public health system is facing a potentially self-inflicted medicine supply crisis, with public hospitals and health institutions in Matabeleland owing the government-owned National Pharmaceutical Company (NatPharm) almost US$2.7 million, money the pharmaceutical distributor says could have been used to replenish stocks of essential medicines.
The debt, which dates back to 2024, has accumulated even as indebted hospitals continue ordering medicines from NatPharm under the Zimbabwe Assisted Pool System (ZAPS).
This has raised questions about the sustainability of a financing model in which the government allocates money to health institutions and leaves them to decide how much of that money should ultimately be paid to another government institution.
At the same time, NatPharm faces a significant funding gap for essential medicines, as officials told legislators that about US$47 million was required in 2026 to procure essential medicines for non-communicable diseases (NCDs), maternal and child healthcare, sexually transmitted infections, as well as medicines and supplies for surgical procedures.
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Of that amount, only US$6 million had been committed by donors and partners, according to NatPharm.
The funding pressures are now reflected on the shelves of the Bulawayo warehouse, where medicines as basic as paracetamol tablets and injections are unavailable, while supplies of critical antibiotics, intravenous fluids, NCDs medicines and psychiatric drugs are also running low or have been exhausted.
Among the medicines currently unavailable or in critically short supply are metronidazole IV, insulin and carbamazepine, while stocks of ceftriaxone are estimated at only about one month.
These shortages emerged during a verification visit to NatPharm Bulawayo by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health and Child Care on Saturday, as part of Parliament’s ongoing assessment of government strategies to recapitalise the pharmaceutical company.
Source: $2.7m hospital debt cripples NatPharm as critical medicines run out — CITEZW
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