MINISTRY of Health Permanent Secretary for Technical Services Professor Lackson Kasonka says public hospitals should not be expected to stock non-essential or “fancy” medicines, as such can be bought from chemists. In an interview, Prof Kasonka said citizens could also utilise the National Health Insurance Scheme to purchase fancy drugs such as cough syrup from commercial pharmacies. “There are two types of medicines, there are essential and non-essential medicines. Non-essential medicines may not be stocked in [the] hospital. They are not essential, they are fancy medicines like cough syrup. You don’t have to stock those medicines in the hospitals. Otherwise, those essential medicines that are meant to cure the cough will always be found in hospitals. Those are the percentages...