Public-private partnership can address drug shortage: Patel

A GOVERNMENT partnership with the private sector can ease medicine shortage in the remotest parts of the country, a pharmacist says.
CPL Group managing director Mahesh Patel said during a suppliers’ meet and greet in Lae on Friday that his company had more than 60 outlets in the country and at least 100 suppliers
Patel, who came to PNG in 1984, said the CPL Group grew from a small pharmacy in a Steamships supermarket in Port Moresby in 1987.
“Thirty years on, the company has more than 60 outlets across the country for all its brands, with more than 100 suppliers both local and international,” he said.
Regarding medicine shortage in rural areas, Patel said the company was looking to expanding into places where there were consumer needs and the need for pharmacies was one.
“It is the fastest growing because healthcare is a basic need. We are looking to go to Vanimo because there is no pharmaceutical care there,” he said. “Someone called me from Buin in Bougainville and asked when we are going to open an outlet in there, and there is also the need for a pharmacy there.
“We want to go to places like Kerema, and it is easy for us because that is how we started, as a pharmacy, and also it is a smaller shop.”
Patel, who wants to contribute to solving some of the country’s development issues, said: “We cannot fix the problem ourselves, we have to work with the government, and the government has to work with the private sector.
“Years back people told me they travelled long distances to get prescription. People should be focusing on farming, and not travelling to look for medicines. We have to take the service to the people, so that people can be more productive. Productivity will increase if we take the service to the people.”