Bringing chronic medication closer to the people

The Tshwane metro has called on residents who are on chronic medicine to enrol in its Dablapmeds programme, which allows them to pick up their meds at any of 155 pick-up points throughout the city.

“If you are not on the programme yet, then ask your health practitioner if you are eligible for enrolment,” said MMC for Health Sakkie du Plooy.

The programme was formerly known as the centralised chronic medication dispensing and distribution (CCMDD) programme.

“This programme makes it unnecessary for stable patients on chronic medicines to collect their medication monthly from clinics,” he said.

“They can rather collect their medicine parcels closer to their homes or places of work.”

Du Plooy said since the inception of the programme in 2014, there has been a marked increase in the number of people accessing medication through it.

He said their goal was to make access to healthcare easier by decongesting health facilities and improving waiting times at clinics.

“In the first year of the programme, about 4 078 patients in the Tshwane district were registered on this programme,” he said.

“These numbers increased to 208 699 in 2017/18 and to 313 379 in February 2021.”

He said the programme initially only catered for adult HIV patients, but now it caters for all stable patients who need chronic medicine, including children and adolescents.

The introduction of the universal test and treatment for people living with HIV and AIDS in the country led to a significant decrease in people registered to the programme.

“This is necessary to ensure that health facilities are not overburdened and patients get medicines at convenient collection points and convenient times,” he said.

Most of these collection points are open for longer hours than many public health facilities.

Du Plooy said stable patients who were enrolled to Dablapmeds had the choice to collect their medicine from external or internal pick-up points.

However, most of the patients had one of the secondary risk factors for severe complications if they were to contract Covid-19.

He said every six months, patients enrolled on Dablapmeds need to come back to the public health facility or clinic for review, but this has changed.

“It is recommended that these patients collect their medicines from external pick-up points to limit their potential exposure to Covid,” he said.

Stable patients enrolled on the programme taking schedule 2, 3 and 4 medicines will be prescribed a 12-month prescription instead of a six-month prescription.

“This will not only limit the potential exposure to the virus but also reduce the workload at health facilities.”

The programme started with 12 pharmacies as external pick-up points in 2014. By the end of March 2015, there were 56 distribution points in Tshwane.

Currently, there are 155 external pick-up points distributed through the seven regions.

The pick-up points are mostly well-known private pharmacies and general practitioner consulting rooms.

Some of the pick-up points in the east of Pretoria include Atterbury Clicks, Faerie Glen Pick n Pay, Menlyn Clicks, Menlyn Maine Clicks, Menlyn Medirite, Olympus Clicks and Dischem, Park View Clicks Pharmacy at SPAR as well as SAV Huis Silversig (Old Age Home patients) and Silverlakes Medirite.

Fact box:

Benefits of the Dablapmeds programme:

– Reduced health facility congestion.

– Reduced waiting times at health facilities.

– Convenience of extended hours of service from private sector facilities.

– Reduced travel costs due to the proximity of pick-up points to the home or workplace.

– Better patient compliance and satisfaction.

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