Picture: (North West health department spokesperson Tebogo Lekgethwane)

BY REGINALD KANYANE

MANY patients across North West will now access their medication in various pharmacies. This was part of Central Chronic Dispensing and Distribution programme. MEC of health Dr Magome Masike said the programme was piloted in Dr Kenneth Kaunda municipality district and will be implemented across.

“We have an agreement with some pharmacies around the province. The aim of this initiative was to reduce backlog and queues in our hospitals. We have already piloted this project in Dr Kenneth Kaunda municipality district. The department experienced queues on daily basis at various hospitals.

“This is part of speeding up basic service delivery. We will inform our patients how the process works. We have patients who fetch ARVs, diabetes and TB medications at the hospitals. The process will make collection of medication easy and accessible,” Masike said.

He said patients will have unique code and will be provided with their medication at their nearest pharmacies. Masike further added that the patients will collect their medication for six months then they will be referred to hospitals afterwards for check-ups.

“We have also bought bicycles for our community healthcare workers in Dr Kenneth Kaunda municipality district. Many patients will wake up at around 3am in the morning just because they want to avoid queues. So we believe together with community healthcare workers we can win the fight,” he said.

Masike said if the programme is successful in Dr Kenneth Kaunda municipality district it will be rolled out to various municipalities. However he said it was also implemented at Ratlou local municipality. He said patients collected their medication at local clinic because there is no pharmacy in the area.

-TDN

Follow us on Twitter@Taung_DailyNews or @IceT_

taungdailynews@gmail.com