Correspondence from Frank Aboagye, Bono Region: It was a sweltering Tuesday afternoon in the year 2015, Madam Adwoa Benewaa, a mother of four recounted her hurrying down the bustling street in Yeji in the Pru East District of the Bono East Region, clutching her handbag tightly which contained a prescription prescribed by a doctor for her son who had been coughing all night.
Her first stop was the small overcrowded pharmacy near the market where other frustrated customers shuffled impatiently in the long queue waiting for their turn but the pharmacist was visibly overwhelmed, darting between shelves stacked with colourful boxes of medicines to serve anxious customers who flooded him with questions.
Madam Benewaa finally reached the counter after nearly 40 minutes of waiting which seemed like ages, only to be greeted with the dreaded words: "We are out of stock." Disappointed but undeterred, she moved on to another pharmacy a few streets away.
This one was dimly lit and less organised, with medications stored in glass cabinets.
