JOHANNESBURG, March 15 (Xinhua) -- South Africa's Gauteng department of health in partnership with Right to Care and Right ePharmacy launched a groundbreaking "ATM pharmacy" or pharmacy dispensing unit (PDU) on Thursday.
The PDU, the first of its kind in Africa and was developed by a team of experts from Germany, is expected to transform the health system.
The "ATM pharmacy" provides patients with chronic illnesses such as HIV, diabetes and TB their repeat medication in just under three minutes.
The pharmacy dispensing unit, which is an ATM-like innovation, uses electronic, robotic and cloud-based technology to capture, select, dispense, label and directly convey prescribed medication to patients.
The PDU is expected to help reduce congestion in public health facilities, said Gwen Ramokgopa, health MEC for Gauteng province, Johannesburg.
"Already in Gauteng we have over 400,000 patients that are receiving their pharmaceutical medicines off site as part of decongesting our facilities," Ramokgopa said.
"This technology will assist in reaching more services to our patients," Ramokgopa added.
The Gauteng MEC of Health Gwen Ramokgopa said congestion of the public health facilities in Johannesburg will be a thing of the past with the introduction of the ATM pharmacy
The PDU has an interactive, information touchscreen and a user-friendly interface which allows for two-way Skype-like audiovisual interaction. Patients can be counselled on how to take their medication and it can be determined whether they have any side effects before the medication is dispensed, said Ramokgopa.
Ramokgopa believes that the health industry is heading for interesting times.
She said the unit will help reach more patients without compromising safety, and that pharmacists and their assistants will be on site.
