{"id":13743,"date":"2024-06-11T15:24:03","date_gmt":"2024-06-11T15:24:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=13743"},"modified":"2024-06-13T21:14:59","modified_gmt":"2024-06-13T21:14:59","slug":"tb-hiv-drugs-stuck-at-port-this-is-deliberate-and-intentional-interim-chair-of-global-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=13743","title":{"rendered":"TB\/HIV drugs stuck at port: This is deliberate and intentional \u2013 Interim Chair of Global Fund"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>2 Minute, 26 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>

Ernest Ortsin, Interim Chairman of the Global Fund Community, has expressed grave concerns about the government\u2019s lack of interest in clearing essential medical commodities for tuberculosis (TB), HIV\/AIDS and malaria drugs stuck at the port.<\/strong><\/p>\n

He said the continuous delay in clearing the remaining over 118 containers of the commodities is \u201cdeliberate and intentional,\u201d with no end in sight.<\/p>\n

The Ministry of Health and the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) collaborated to clear 14 of the 182 containers shipped to Ghana in April. The Health Ministry has not been forthcoming with updates on how many of the commodities have been cleared.<\/p>\n

The Global Fund has warned that it will cut supply to Ghana if the commodities are not cleared immediately.<\/p>\n

The Global Fund for Community Foundation donated these medical supplies to Ghana free of charge however, it has taken Ghana\u2019s government and the Ministry of Health more than a year to clear the life-saving commodities.<\/p>\n

Disturbingly, a huge chunk of the commodities is expected to expire by the first quarter of 2025, if not cleared immediately for use by patients.<\/p>\n

There are also reports of a shortage of these essential medicines at health centres across the country.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Johnnie Hughes on 3FM\u2019s Sunrise<\/a> programme on Tuesday, Mr Ortsin could not understand the continued delay of the government to clear the drugs.<\/p>\n

READ ALSO:<\/strong><\/h6>\n

Stacked up medical supplies: Global Fund to advise itself if not cleared<\/a><\/p>\n

Responding to the concerns that the medicines will start expiring by early 2025, Mr Ortsin said, \u201cThat is the strangest part in all of this. There was no sense of urgency on the part of anyone. It\u2019s liturgy all around.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\u201cAnd that is why I have come to a conclusion that this is very deliberate, this is very intentional. To what end? We don\u2019t know. But it\u2019s very obvious this is very deliberate and very intentional,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n

Moreover, Mr Ortsin indicated that the Global Fund initially added a one percent amount to cover for the clearing of the commodities but due to increments in taxes at the port, the amount could not cover for the consignment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Global Fund since 2002 has been sending commodities to the country\u2026 when these commodities are coming, they add extra money for clearance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith reference to this incident, the same PSM cost of 1% was added, that has been the practice throughout the years. Last year, when the commodities were shipped, the government initially said our port charges had gone up,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n

He revealed that the Fund in May released US$85,000 to the Health Minister to be topped up to clear the medicines.<\/p>\n

However, demurrages and third-party charges are amounting to seven million cedis, which must be paid.<\/p>\n

The post TB\/HIV drugs stuck at port: This is deliberate and intentional \u2013 Interim Chair of Global Fund<\/a> first appeared on 3News<\/a>.<\/p>

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Ernest Ortsin, Interim Chairman of the Global Fund Community, has expressed grave concerns about the government\u2019s lack of interest in clearing essential medical commodities for tuberculosis (TB), HIV\/AIDS and malaria… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"yes","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13743"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14314,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13743\/revisions\/14314"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}