Pharmacies to receive financial boost under SEAP project

The president of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana, Dr. Samuel Paul Donkor, has underscored the need for financial support for pharmacists who want to establish pharmacies at vantage points to provide care for the vulnerable.

The majority of sick people, according to Dr. Donkor, first contact pharmacies when they have various conditions.

He asserted that pharmacists provide critical interventions like first aid treatment and diagnosis to those in need, thereby requiring adequate financing to ensure they have the necessary drugs and other supplies to assist their clients.

Dr. Donkor believes that pharmacists as first contact points could potentially save patients’ lives before they are referred to hospitals for further attention.

“80% of people will go to pharmacies first when they have various conditions, and the interventions the pharmacists will do are very critical and crucial, be it first aid, treatment, or diagnosis,” Mr. Donkor told the press on Thursday, June 6, 2024, during the launch of the SEAPS project in Accra.

“Because at the pharmacy we have rapid diagnosis tests that are used to help in rapid diagnosis, and there are basic conditions that the pharmacists can immediately intervene and that could save a patient’s life before sometimes you even make the referral, and that is why we need them at the forefront or at the level of primary health care,” he added.

SEAPS is an acronym for Strategies to Enhance Access to Pharmaceutical Services.

It is headquartered in the Netherlands and has the primary objective of providing debt financing for healthcare companies in Africa.

As part of the PharmaAccess Group, SEAP’s goal is to increase access to quality healthcare and stimulate investments in the health sector. The company therefore combines loans with technical assistance to strengthen businesses and improve services using the SafeCare methodology for quality improvement.

Under the project, final support will be provided to qualifying pharmaceutical companies by the Medical Credit Fund (MCF), which has offices in four African countries, namely Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and Tanzania.

Established in 2009 by the PharmAccess Group as part of its approach to strengthening African health systems and connecting more people to better healthcare, MCF has disbursed more than $150 million in loans to over 2000 businesses.

Deputy Minister of Health, Hon. Adelaide Ntim, who represented the sector minister, Dr. Bernard Oko Boye, commended the leadership of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana for rolling out this initiative, adding that it represents a significant step in a collective effort to strengthen healthcare delivery across the country.

According to her, the initiative, which is a deliberate effort to position pharmacies and pharmacists as primary health care providers, is timely as it complements the recently launched implementation guidelines for the network of practice by the Ghana Health Service.

She furthered that the initiative will address systemic challenges in health care delivery and build a long-term primary health care module that supports universal health coverage in Ghana.