By Kemo Cham
The Sierra Leone government is to establish standard pharmacies across the country as part of its drive to discourage consumption of fake drive, the Ministry of Health said.
Health Minister Prof. Alpha Tejan Wurie was quoted last week saying that pharmacies will be established in all 190 chiefdoms across the country, so that Sierra Leoneans can have access to affordable drugs.
The government, according to Prof. Wurie, hopes that this will mitigate fake drug peddling, which poses a major health threat to the population.
The government says proliferation of fake drugs has made work for it complicated.
"We want to stop the distribution of fake drugs by unprofessional Pharmacists across Sierra Leone. The quality health of the people is paramount hence the reason we want to establish these pharmacies to ensure they get quality drugs from qualified Pharmacists at chiefdom level," the Minister was quoted in a news release from the office of the Public Relations in the Ministry of Health and Sanitation.
According to the release, Prof Wurie was speaking in Port Loko as he delivered a consignment of drugs for the government’s Free Health Care programme which targets pregnant women, lactating mothers and children under five.
Drugs worth millions of Leones were safely delivered through the National Medical Supplies Agency, the release said, adding that a total of seven trucks loaded with PPEs, hand sanitizers, uniforms for healthcare workers [nurses and doctors], as well as one hundred delivery beds, were also offloaded in the northern district.
Prof. Wurie lamented that for a long time communities have been challenged with getting access to quality drugs, forcing them to rely on drug peddlers, stressing that the situation needed urgent action.
The government is also working on procuring cost recovery drugs for distribution in remote areas of the country to make the population access quality cost recovery drugs at an affordable cost, according to Dr Wurie.
"This means that we can also provide medical facility for elderly person at a reasonable cost," the minister said.
Wurie said all this is part of efforts by the government to improve on healthcare delivery, with particular focus on the most vulnerable segment of the population, including ensuring that each referral hospital across the country has standardized mortuary and an emergency unit.
"The emergency unit will be fully operational by 2021 but the rehabilitation of the hospitals and other facilities will be immediate," he said.
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