‘Pharmacy management training key’

ALL the provincial health authorities (PHAs) are encouraged to budget for their certificate in basic pharmacy management programme for pharmacy assistants, an academic says.
The call was made by the University of PNG School of Medicine and Health Sciences head of pharmacy Dr Jackson Lauwo following the graduation of more than 50 pharmacy assistants.
Lauwo said the Department of Health funded the pilot project to see how the programme would work in five provinces – Eastern Highlands, Western Highlands, Western, West Sepik and Milne Bay – which was a success.
The year-and-a-half programme comprised eight courses over three semesters focused on capacity building in empowering and delivering effective pharmaceutical services at the rural health facilities.
Lauwo said a study conducted between 2012 and 2013 revealed that the sets of medicines found in the big hospitals were available in the health centres because they were distributed in kits, however, they were not used properly.
He said the ordering and delivery of medical supplies, its management and administering of doses were all done by the community health workers with no specialist input.
Lauwo added pharmacist assistance trained to understand how the medicine work and problems associated with usage such as side effects would be crucial to have.
He said there were around 2,500 aid posts, sub-health centres and health centres hence there was a need for pharmacy assistants.
“Our challenge in training more pharmacy assistants is funding,” Lauwo said.
“We are now encouraging PHAs to provide their own funding support for training pharmacy assistants in their own areas.”