The medical superintendent at Masvingo Provincial Hospital has called on the police to investigate what he described as “sophisticated” criminals who appear to be doctoring patient records to steal anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs from the hospital’s dispensary.
Noel Zulu made the call after investigations uncovered suspicious drug- patient records which were leaked to him by a concerned staffer at the hospital.
Presented with a sample of the records, Zulu said he was going to engage the police to help with investigations.
“We are going to conduct a sting operation and bring the culprits to book. This is a big and complicated case involving sophisticated people. I cannot give more details now because that will jeopardise our investigations,” he said.
Yet, despite the seriousness of the case, the ZRP Officer Commanding Masvingo Province, Commissioner Friedrick Mbengwa, said his department had not yet been contacted.
However, a whistleblower who leaked the records believes that some of his colleagues at the hospital are running a scheme to register “ghost” HIV patients so that their profiles can be used to siphon ARV drugs out of the hospital's dispensary.
ARVs are ingredients in the production of street drugs such as nyaope in southern Africa.
The theft or diversion of ARVs intended to treat people with HIV from health services to feed the demand of drug merchants has previously been documented in the region.
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The whistleblower, who leaked hospital records on condition of anonymity, said he discovered irregularities in how patients were being registered and administered ARV tablets at the hospital some months ago.
“While we were doing our usual reconciliation of the patients we had served throughout the week, I discovered that there are 10 patients who repeatedly appeared on our records (on the same dates,” he said.
For instance, the 10 patients were all registered on the same day, that is, January 27, 2023.
Studying the records, investigations confirmed the suspicious pattern of how drugs are dispensed to all 10 “patients,” which prompted the whistleblower to scrutinise their records more closely.
All 10 patients appeared to have presented with clockwork regularity on no fewer than 13 exact dates between January 2023 and June this year.
On each date, the same number of tablets appeared to have been dispensed to each of the patients, ranging between 30, 60 and 90 tablets on a given day. On one day in particular, November 11, 2024, a load totalling 180 tablets was dispensed to each of the 10 patients.
The records even showed that the 10 patients were aligned in days that they presented late or early for their collection — something which is impossible to have happened by chance, the whistleblower said.
In total, nearly 8 000 tablets were dispensed to this group of 10 patients over the period for which records were studied.
“Some of these records clearly show that they were photocopied (from the original forms). I checked them and found that there is a pattern in the way they collected their supplies. That raised my suspicion,” said the source.
He said the fact that the records were copied from original templates further indicated to him that they were not records for “real” patients, but rather of “ghost” patients initiated with the intention to steal ARVs from the dispensary.
When a person tests positive for HIV at a hospital in Zimbabwe, one of the main records that is initiated is a “green book”, which captures the patient’s personal details, date of diagnosis, baseline details (such as viral load and CD4 count) and the start of their treatment regimen. Each patient is assigned a unique number, which allows health services to track them.
The source said he could not recognise the signatures, which were being used to sign on the green books, as belonging to any of his colleagues. This caused him to suspect that they may have been fake signatures.
This is not the first time Masvingo Provincial Hospital has been embroiled in a drug theft scandal.
Earlier this year, the hospital suspended a senior nurse for allegedly stealing pethidine — a powerful painkiller classified as a dangerous drug — and cytotec, a medication commonly used for abortions.
Moreblessing Munyira, who is alleged to have a history of drug abuse, is accused of misappropriating approximately 75 ampoules of pethidine while working in the male medical ward.
Hospital investigations further revealed that she was involved in the suspicious acquisition of cytotec, which is used to induce labour and, in some cases, to illegally terminate pregnancies.
Pethidine is strictly regulated and stored in a double-locked cabinet known as the Drugs of Dangerous Addiction cupboard at the hospital. Protocol requires that two nurses be present to retrieve and administer the drug, ensuring accountability.
However, Munyira allegedly circumvented this system by forging documents, including the signatures of off-duty nurses.
She is also accused of writing fake prescriptions under the name of Porika Nyahwai, a physician at the hospital, to conceal her actions.
“I can confirm that investigations were done and she was suspended. The matter is now at the provincial medical director’s office,” Zulu said.
In another incident, in February this year, laboratory scientist Goodson Dzuwalinyenga and laboratory technician Tichaona Shindi appeared in court on charges of stealing vital medical supplies.
The two were accused of taking three units of blood from the hospital’s blood bank refrigerator, along with 300 empty red-top blood tubes and 100 purple-top tubes, which are used for taking blood samples from patients. A total of 229 red-top tubes and 100 purple-top tubes were later recovered. The blood was not recovered.
This report was produced by the Southern Africa Accountability Journalism Project, an initiative of the Henry Nxumalo Foundation, with the financial assistance of the European Union. It can, under no circumstances, be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union.
