Vice President of Ghana, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia on 2nd November 2021 announced that the government will launch an E-pharmacy platform to solve the challenges faced by the citizens in accessing medicines. The platform is currently being piloted with 45 pharmacies and will be launched before this year ends. It will also make Ghana the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to have a national scale e-pharmacy platform.
While delivering a lecture at the Ashesi University on Ghana’s Digital Economy, he stated that the Pharmacy Council in collaboration with a private company are working towards digitizing the operations of pharmacy in Ghana. This is because patients have to spend long hours searching for prescribed medications that sometimes can be very expensive.
The patients can upload their prescription through their mobile phones and check which pharmacy has the medicines and at what rate are they available. The patients can order and pay for the medicines through their mobile phones and get it delivered at home.
Dr Bawumia mentioned that it will help control drug abuse as controlled drugs will only be given at the pharmacies via a one-time code sent through message. The platform will also help track fake and counterfeit drugs as the platform will directly be linked to the FDA. Any drug that doesn’t match the FDA will be considered fake.
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