The South African Pharmacy Council (SAPC) will be hosting the 3rd National Pharmacy Conference in October 2019, in North West. The conference will bring together more than 1 000 pharmacists, pharmacy support personnel, policy-makers and decision makers to find solutions for issues affecting South Africa and the pharmacy profession.
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Amongst matters to be discussed at the conference are interventions to deal with medicine misuse and abuse, transformation in the profession and pharmacy ownership, improved access to pharmaceutical services to previously underserviced areas, patient safety in an era of technological advances, and increasing rural distribution of pharmaceutical service through National Health Insurance.
The conference will also ensure the training of pharmacists and their support personnel in best practices, point-of-care testing and HIV self-testing, HIV prevention through pre-exposure and post-exposure prophylaxes, and early detection of health issues through screening tests in order to improve the health of the population, among other workshops meant to improve the service delivery.
“This conference is hosted at an opportune time as South Africa is currently faced with issues such as medicine abuse, minimal access to pharmaceutical care in most of our rural areas,” says Mr Mogologolo Phasha, President of the South African Pharmacy Council.
Mr Phasha adds that the conference will ensure increased understanding among pharmacists on their role as primary healthcare providers who are often the first point of contact when patients are faced with ailments.
Mr Amos Masango, the Registrar & CEO of the South African Pharmacy Council, says the conference will prepare pharmacy professionals to respond according to the changing healthcare needs of patients. “It will help us devise means to ensure that the pharmacy profession supports the healthcare goals envisioned in the National Development Plan, and deliver the kind of services planned in the National Health Insurance”.