The Aurum Institute continues to bring patient-centred healthcare solutions, this time, supporting the Department of Health Dablapmeds initiative. Dablap is a colloquial term for shortcut and is the new name for the Department’s Central Chronic Medicine Dispensing and Distribution (CCMDD) programme.
“The name says it all. Instead of sitting in a queue at a clinic just get treatment, a patient can now collect their chronic medication at a conveniently located external pick-up point. This saves time and decongests facilities, which is especially important now because of COVID-19,” said Nompumelelo Khoza, Technical Pharmacy Advisor at Aurum in Mafikeng, North West.
Khoza’s lends her expertise by providing training to clinic staff on how to get people who are stable and just need to collect their treatment, on to the programme and staff from the external pick-up points on Dablapmeds standard operating procedures and processes. The Aurum team involved in Dablapmeds also recruits and registers new external pick-up points to expand the number of locations where people can collect their medication. Aurum does the monitoring and evaluation for the clinics and manages communication between the clinics and external pick-up points.
As a pharmacist at Aurum Mafikeng, Christopher Mooketsi Tlape assists in the running of the Dablapmeds programme by checking on patients, prescriptions, the external pick-up points, and medication stock management. He and others from the pharmacy and decanting teams based at the clinics, all work together to ensure Dablapmeds really is an easy and convenient process for patients. “I believe we are making a positive contribution to patient care by ensuring they get their medication at pick up points near them and at times suitable for them. This means helping patients stay adherent to their treatment which ultimately eases the burden on the healthcare system,” said Khoza.
