At a press conference at the site where medicine parcels for the Western Cape Department of Health's 200 000 chronically ill patients are packaged, provincial Minister of Health, Theuns Botha, said that the new contract is moving into new territory in the dispensing of medication.
"With this system, the Western Cape is certainly leading the country. It is envisaged that eventually the service will include deliveries to patients' homes. Eventually, delivery of patient chronic medication parcels to their homes in the Metropole and postal delivery will be rolled out within the financial constraints and allocated budgetary framework," said Minister Botha. "With this service, government is delivering an improved health service. When government provides the service and our patients take the responsibility to take their medication, we are better together," he emphasised.
Initially, in August 2011, UTi Pharma was appointed to provide a chronic medication dispensing service to the Western Cape Department of Health for some 40 000 patients. However, from 1 April 2012, this tender was extended to nearly 200 000 patients per month - making this the single largest pharmacy operation of its kind on the continent.
The R500 million contract was awarded for a five-year period.
At present, services cover 118 facilities and provide chronic medicines and ARVs to sites in the Metro District Health Services mainly, as well as to parts of the West Coast and Winelands districts.
The Sisonke Partnership t/a UTi Pharma collects prescriptions from sites, dispenses the medicines according to the prescription, makes patient medicine parcels into sealed tamper-evident parcels and distributes these parcels to facilities. This is in accordance with legislation and good pharmacy practice.
UTi Pharma electronically tracks the dispensing of parcels from the site to facilities and hands over the parcels with feedback prompts for the next patient medicine parcels. Patients also receive text message reminders to collect their next patient parcel.
The service provider's helpdesk assists patients and facilities with queries, tracks the progress and reports on resolutions.
Minister Botha said that the service will be rolled out in a staggered manner from the Metropole to rural districts encompassing the entire province during the contract period.
The first five months - April to July 2012 - provide time for UTi to take over existing services and sites. In the six months thereafter - August 2012 until January 2013 - dispensing services will expand to the relevant central and regional hospitals in Cape Town, followed by the expansion of the balance of the West Coast District facilities. Thereafter, a staggered roll-out will take place in the rural districts. Thereafter, home deliveries will commence in a pilot phased manner in the Metropole, according to the operational needs and financial constraints.
Each further expansion will be prefaced by a review by the department of the service delivery at that time, in consultation with role players and operational service needs.
The benefits of the service being provided by UTi Pharma include:
The benefits of the new service will become increasingly apparent as the project settles down, notwithstanding the challenges in the interpretation and integration of data that occurred in the take on of the additional 160 000 patients.
UTi Pharma and the Department of Health have committed significant resources to resolving the issues over the past three weeks, and the situation has now been stabilised and the service is operating normally (ie medication for collection on 23 April is being dispensed today, 19 April).
Despite the unfortunate challenges that occurred, and the regrettable inconvenience to some patients, it should be noted that even where a script has not been available, a patient has still been served and medicine provided.
Going forward, additional safety margins of dispensed products will be built into the system and any possible future technical challenges will have no operational effect - and importantly, will not negatively impact on patients in any way.
In addition, as the new service beds down in the coming months, the full range of benefits detailed above will become apparent to patients throughout the Western Cape.
UTi Pharma SA vice-president, Robin Botha, said the service is a significant step in improving the dispensing of chronic medication to all patients in the Western Cape, and will become the standard by which dispensing will be judged.
Hélène Rossouw
Spokesperson for Minister Botha
Tel: 021 483 4426
Cell: 082 771 8834
E-mail: helene.rossouw@pgwc.gov.za
Faiza Steyn
Director: Communications
Tel: 021 483 3235
Cell: 082 801 6960
E-mail: Faiza.Steyn@pgwc.gov.za