Explainer: Collecting chronic medication at nearest pharmacy, post office

The department launched a programme in conjunction with local pharmacies and post offices in 2014 as part of efforts ease access to medicine.

But some pharmacists have raised concerns at the manner in which the medication is handled by the various post offices.

Department of Health spokesperson Foster Mohale says there are stringent measures in place to ensure the medicine is safely stored.

“The programme has been here for almost eight years. We rolled out a programme called central chronic medicine dispensing and distribution programme in 2014. By now we managed to enrol more than 5 million patients on this programme, so it is not new.

“We are distributing our medications at about 300 branches, but not only at post offices, also at retailers like Clicks, Dis-chem, Medirite, independent and community pharmacies and even the doctor’s practices. This is not new, and it allows the patients to collect chronic medication at their nearest places without incurring transportation costs.”

How it works

Patients who are stable on their chronic treatment are offered the opportunity by their local health facilities to be enrolled onto the programme.

The medicines are then sent to the local pharmacies or post office to distributes to patients.

These include patients with arthritis, asthma, congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes mellitus, hypertension and HIV infection.

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