The Sabie Hospital Pharmacy outshone the rest of the public institutional pharmacies at the recent 2019 South
African Pharmacy Council Pioneer Pharmacy Awards.
They were recently named the public institutional pharmacy of the year, in recognition of their significant dedication shown for the pharmacy profession.
As a small-town pharmacy, receiving the title of national winner is a giant step for them. The SA Pharmacy Council said, “‘Perseverance’ and ‘ground-breaking’ would be used to describe Sabie Pharmacy.
ALSO READ: Concerted efforts by all stakeholders to address water crisis
This rural pharmacy has grown and indicatively stretched its resources to reach its current position.”
It was started in a tiny building, separate from the hospital, with one dispensing area to accommodate antiretroviral patients, in and out patients, schedule five, ward orders, acute and chronic scripts.
Despite an overload of patients and space constraints, the pharmacy continued to maintain an A-grade status.
In 2016, it was upgraded to a larger facility inside the hospital. The pharmacy was runner-up in the provincial awards, with rating of 97 per cent.
ALSO WATCH: A moment of silence for Sr Rona Labuschagne at the CANSA Shades of Pink Walk
During Lowvelder’s visit this week, the service in the pharmacy received praise from patients. They said the team goes the extra mile to make sure that patients receive good service.
As a way to provide service in a language that the patients understand, they have a chart with words used often in the pharmacy translated to Siswati and Sotho.
“It makes it easy to understand and for them to explain the prescriptions to patients,” said a community member.
The team has a system that they use to make sure that they provide service as fast as they can.
