VIAGRA NEWS

Source: The Freeport News

Date: 20-Feb-2007

The Grand Bahama Health Services (GBHS) has announced the establishment of full pharmacy services at the Eight Mile Rock Clinic, thus servicing the needs of the West Grand Bahama area.

GBHS Administrator Sharon Williams said they are also eyeing additional pharmaceutical services in other parts of Grand Bahama.

Along with Deputy Chief Pharmacist Leonard Sturrup and Pharmacist Marilyn Marcia King, Williams was in Eight Mile Rock for the launching last Thursday and termed it "another positive step in the delivery of health care to the people of Grand Bahama."

The hospital administrator said a pharmacist will be on hand at the Eight Mile Rock Clinic between the hours of 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday to handle the pharmacy needs of persons in West Grand Bahama.

She explained that prior to the opening on Thursday, the Grand Bahama Health Services only provided full pharmacy services at the Rand Memorial Hospital, and that the limited pharmacy services at the outlying clinics were managed by nursing staff who filled prescription on a minor basis, with the client then having to come to the Rand to fill the extended prescription.

"Now we are going to implement this year some of the full pharmacy services within the community clinics," Williams said.

Acknowledging that there is a demand for pharmacy services throughout the island, Williams said they recently had to upgrade their pharmacy staff to meet the needs of their clients in the community.

"We specifically wanted to open this facility in the Eight Mile Rock area because we know that it is the biggest community, and we wanted to see the impact of this service on our clientele at the Grand Bahama Health Services," Williams said. "We feel this will pull a lot of the traffic from the corridor that you see congregating before the pharmacy (Rand Hospital). We are going to monitor that for a month and then decide what else we need to do in terms of addressing those clients that remain at Grand Bahama Health Services.

"We also intend in the very near future to do the same thing, expand this service to the Hawksbill community by opening our pharmacy services at the Hawksbill Clinic."

Williams said while they do not have all of their pharmacy staffing needs in place, they do have sufficient staff to open the Eight Mile Rock facility.

Deputy Chief Pharmacist Sturrup said the services now being offered in Eight Mile Rock is something that had been sought for a long time.

He too admitted that it is their objective to open pharmacies at strategic locations throughout the island, but stressed that it comes with more than just saying that. It comes with human resource; it comes with facilities having the necessary infrastructure. He said once those issues are resolved, they can look at extending the pharmacy services.

Referring to the eastern end of Grand Bahama, he said the demand is not as great but what they intend to do is to have pharmacists go out on a weekly or monthly basis to offer counselling and some pharmacy services, and continue the drop-off service.

In addition to the new pharmacy at Eight Mile Rock Clinic, he said the Grand Bahama Health Services' 'Drop-off Service' is being expanded to where persons will be able to leave their prescription, and if they have other things to do, they can go and come back later and pick up their medications.

He said that they are also looking at having prescriptions filled at the Rand Hospital and sent back out to the various clinics once the manpower is in place.

Sturrup also confirmed that veteran Pharmacist Marilyn Marcia King is currently stationed at the Eight Mile Rock facility along with Folana Burrows, a pharmacy technician.

Commenting on the opening of the pharmacy at Eight Mile Rock, King said, "We are elated to be a part of the vision of the Public Hospitals Authority's Managing Director, Mr. Herbert Brown, and indeed the Minister of Health, the Honourable Dr. Bernard Nottage, in bringing to the settlements here in Grand Bahama pharmacy services.

"It is really our pleasure to do this. We find that at the clinic here in Eight Mile Rock we have been able to interact with the patients on a one-to-one basis, and have been able to educate them concerning their medications.

"We have also been able to encourage them to involve themselves in healthy lifestyles that will go along with the medication that they are taking, in a way to prevent rather than cure illnesses that they present with.

"We find the forum here at Eight Mile Rock very stimulating and the receptions very, very good, because everybody is so happy and so grateful to see us," she said.

She noted that the medical staff at the Eight Mile Rock Clinic has helped them along in forging relationships with patients.

"That is most important because once we have the relationship with the patient then we are able to educate at a higher level," she stated.

Dr. Elaine Lundy, Consultant Director of Clinical Services in Community Health Services stationed at the Eight Mile Rock Clinic, views as unreal the benefits of the service being added to the clinic. "It's the service we've been waiting for.

"Prior to this the nurses used to do the pharmacy and they didn't have that innate knowledge of drug interactions and so forth. Now we have a pharmacist that can give the patients all that information, and do teaching modules before we begin the clinics; and now patients don't have to wait that long to be served.

"The biggest challenge that we have here at the clinic are the chronic diseases, and the problem of poly-pharmacy, patients on several different medications, and we have to thinks about the interactions.

"We want to give them the message that they don't have to be on these medications for the rest of their lives, but they can do lifestyle changes, and they can taper off these medications, come off them all together, or decrease the dosage," said Dr. Lundy.

The Eight Mile Rock Clinic offers weekly teaching module in Anti-natal Care, Post-natal Family Planning, and Child Health, with a different clinic everyday for its patients.

The clinic is began a program of partnering with the patients and has initiated a fruits day to encourage our patients to eat fruits, and soon a salad day for the same purpose. Nurses have began a walking exercise program on the clinic grounds and they encourage patients to join them at 4:00 p.m. each day.