…automated medicine dispensing system officially launched
BY KWANELE TSABEDZE
MATSAPHA – “We need these in all the urban areas”.
These were the words of Minister of Health Lizzie Nkosi when officially commissioning the Chakaza Emphilweni Clinic in Matsapha.
During the official commissioning of the clinic, the Minister also officially launched the Automated Medication Dispensing Locker system, which is called LulaMeds. The system makes it easier for patients on treatment to access their medication by themselves at any time of the day – much like an ATM.
Speaking during the launch, Minister Lizzie Nkosi applauded the accessibility of the clinic and its high quality facilities.
“It is a wonderful day for me to be here for the commissioning of this Chakaza Emphilweni clinic. It is such an important thing that happened here today – PSI handing over work to Georgetown University for some work that they started and are continuing,” said the Minister in acknowledging the transition of the clinic’s leadership.
“It is important for things to transition very smoothly,” she added.
The Minister also expressed that she was happy to learn a few insights from the clinic that will enable the Ministry to do better work.
“I was impressed to come here and see how you are using the client management system. For example, you are able to automatically send clients notification reminders about when their appointments are due. We are looking at what it can do to take back to our teams,” said the minister, applauding the use of Innovation in the clinic.
“We are battling to make sure that our client management systems are linked to central medical stores”, said the minister, expanding on some of the challenges for which she was hoping to solve with the insights from the clinic.
The Minister added that she was excited about the next few months as the system is being rolled out. She noted how well the HIV response has been driven by data in the country.
“We analyse this data, we look at it every day and we use it to inform what we are doing. We did not reach the 95-95-95 target by chance,” noted the Minister.
“We want to eliminate HIv once and for all. By the time we reach 2030 and other countries are reaching the 95-95-95 goal, we want to be done with HIV in the country,” said the Minister.
She added that the clinic was playing a pivotal role in the controlling of HIV and AIDS among men, who are typically assessed to avoid seeking help from professionals with their health.
“In as much as we thought that men are afraid to test, we are happy to see that more men are taking up PrEP [Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis]. I was surprised to see that in the age group of 15-29 years, more men are taking up PrEP,” noted the Minister.
“It’s not enough in Matsapha to have just one, so we need them in all the urban areas,” said Minister Nkosi, after officially commissioning the Chakaza Emphilweni Clinic.
The clinic, which used to be called Litsemba Letfu Men’s Clinic, provides free health services to men and women, which are served on separate wings of the clinic. It is supported by Georgetown University, Center for Global Health Practice and Impact, a United States-based organisation. Through funding from the CDC PEPFAR, and the USG, they procured Automated Medication Dispensing Lockers (AMDL), which are also known as LulaMeds prescription lockers.
Speaking on behalf of the U.S. Embassy in Eswatini, Ambassador Earl Miller said that in his 35 years of foreign service, this is the kind of work he finds most fulfilling to participate in. He joked with an anecdote about how the leading cause of death among men is an embarrassment to seek medical help and went on congratulate the health workers at the clinic, whom he called heroes.
Ambassador Miller thanked the health workers for contributing to Eswatini’s achievement of the 95-95-95 goal.
“People say it is a miracle, it is not a miracle. What happened came from you all. You saved those lives,” emphasised the Ambassador.
According to Dr Pido Bongomin who gave the overview of the clinic’s operations, Chakaza Emphilweni currently serves 2420 clients who are on ART as of the end of March 2023. He added that they provide; Prevention services; Antenatal care/postnatal care/elimination to child transmission; Treatment services for ARVs, TB, and other illnesses; provide cervical cancer treatment and screening; as well as provide sexual health counselling services, especially for males.
“This is an area of great need and we are planning to have more coverage for the local population,” said Dr Bongomin about the location of the clinic.
The Regional Administrator of the Manzini region, Prince Gija also gave his appreciation and welcomed what he called a beautiful development to the region of Manzini.
“I know patients are not patient with time,” he said when appreciating the time-saving LulaMeds self-service prescription lockers.
“We should multiply and have it in all the regions,” said the Regional Administrator, adding that it was not his first and last time visiting the clinic.
The Minister of Health, Ambassador Miller, and other delegates took a tour of the clinic, ending with a demonstration of one client using the LulaMeds self-service prescription lockers.
“We no longer have to queue, we just come here and get our medication. We are grateful because we no longer have to ask for a break from work whenever we need to pick up medication, we can come here at any time, so we really appreciate Chakaza for that,” said the client who demonstrated the LulaMeds system.
“The new automated drug dispensary system is a testimony of the evolution of our patient-centred,” said Dr Samson Haumba, who was speaking on behalf of Georgetown University.
“We are thankful to PEPFAR and the Government for the support of helping us get the clinic to where it is today,” he added.
“We also want to thank the government for connecting us with all the essential components. For example, we are linked to medical stores and HCMIS. We want to acknowledge the regional administration office for enabling us to get all the licenses we needed to operate,” added Dr Haumba.
The clinic was originally founded in 2009 with the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and it was run by Population Services International (PSI). It currently has a staff of 13, and services thousands of clients a month.
