The Health and Social Services Ministry says it will deploy prudent financial principles to ensure that every cent is spent to the benefit of patients. Acting Permanent Secretary Petronella Masabane made the remark in an interview with Nampa news agency recently. Another measure to cope with limited resources is for employees to share tasks, instead of employing a new employee for each activity. The shortage of funds remains the ministry’s biggest challenge, having been dealt a further blow with the 2018/19 financial year budgetary allocation. The ministry received N$6,5 billion from Treasury, a 10% decrease from the previous year, with Masabane saying the year will be tougher for the ministry. Meanwhile, the ministry faces criticism for its perceived reluctance to roll out pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) drugs, which can help prevent HIV infection in people who do not have the virus, but are at high risk of becoming infected. To this, Masabane acknowledged that more needs to be done to create awareness around PrEP, but denied any form of reluctance from the ministry in terms of its roll-out.