As the country observers World Pharmacist Day, the Gauteng MEC for Health and Wellness, Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko has paid tribute to pharmacy professionals saying that they play a critical role in patient care and in improving health outcomes.
September is Pharmacy Month in South Africa and culminates in the annual World Pharmacist Day on 25 September. This year’s theme is: “Pharmacy strengthening health systems”.
The focus of the month has been on promoting health education, providing access to primary healthcare and vaccines and empowering patients on antimicrobial stewardship and encouraging them to approach their pharmacist for their medication queries.
“Pharmacists contribute significantly to the achievement of the sustainable development goal number 3, by ensuring medicine availability for non- communicable and communicable diseases. They are section of a multidisciplinary approach to achieve better health outcomes. They ensure that the precise medicine is given to the factual patient, at the proper time, for the factual condition, and at the most cost-effective price,” explains MEC Nkomo- Ralehoko.
Pharmacists play a leading role in ensuring that the Gauteng Department of Health (GDoH) maintains 96% medicine availability within public health facilities, and they remain a resource that should be utilised optimally to promote healthcare for patients and to also strengthen the health scheme.
World Pharmacist Day continue to be acclaimed annually since its inception at the 2009 International Pharmaceutical Federation Congress held in
Istanbul, Turkey and has allowed pharmacist through practice and emerging innovation to support the futuristic health care needs of the health scheme.
During October 2023, the GDoH will host its Annual Pharmacy Managers Conference, under the theme: “Pharmacy Resilience in an era of disruption: What can we carry out differently”. This is aimed at addressing the role of pharmacy in strengthening health outcomes, in the rollout of the National Health Insurance and pharmacy technology in advancing the pharmacy profession and the risk of not preparing today for tomorrow.
Skylark
UK: You have two cows. After a lengthy court battle, the bovines hold a referendum and are separated.
Butterquest
Van is getting married, but he and his fiancee have never done the deed – in fact he\’s never been with any woman before. He\’s getting more and more nervous as the big day approaches, so he confides in his friend. His friend says \’No worries man. I\’ll come by the honeymoon suite before you guys get there, and I\’ll hide behind the curtain, and I\’ll whisper instructions to you.\’
\’You\’d do that for me?\’
\’Sure thing man!\’
So the wedding day arrives, it was a lovely service (so I was told, I wasn\’t there myself) and Van\’s friend sneaks into the honeymoon suite as promised and hides behind the curtain.
Van and his new wife arrive in the room, get settled on the bed, and things are getting steamy.
But Van is still super nervous and his tummy is bubbling, so he murmers to his wife, \’Listen babe, I\’m just gonna go to the bathroom quick. I think it\’s that wors roll from earlier.\’
\’Sure thing babe.\’
So Van goes into the bathroom, and he\’s taking quite a long time. And his wife is starting to feel the nerves herself. And it\’s getting worse. She can\’t hold it in. But she doesn\’t want to go after he\’s gone and totally ruin the mood. So she looks around and finally finds a shoebox. Quickly, she does her business in the shoebox, and she shoves it under the bed just as Van comes back from the loo.
Van gets back on the bed and they go at it again. But after a minute or so Van smells something not so lekker.
\’What\’s that smell?\’
\’Nothing babe,\’ he wife tries to assure him.
\’No man there\’s definitely something not so lekker in this room!\’VSo Van starts looking around the room, in the corners, in the cupboard, and finally he looks under the bed, and sees the shoebox.
He pull it out, and opens it up, and in horror he shouts \’Sies! Daar\’s kak in hierdie doos!\’
And from behind the curtain his friend yells, \’NEE MAN, DRAAI HAAR OM!\”