On Monday, July 18, the National Electronic Pharmacy Platform (NEPP) was introduced in Accra by the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.
The national ePharmacy, the first national-scale ePharmacy platform in Africa, is a digital convergence of authorised pharmacies throughout the nation. It will allow Ghanaians to have access to prescribed medications and buy by placing an order with a mobile phone through the ePharmacy app, website, or shortcode, and have the medicine delivered to a desired location.
Vice President Bawumia, who launched the NEEP and urged the Pharmacy Council to go digital in 2019, expressed his joy at the project's successful completion and the enormous advantages it will provide for Ghanaians in the coming years.
According to Dr. Bawumia, "I recall with fondness that in 2019, in line with the government's digitalization drive, I challenged the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana to take steps in ensuring that Pharmacy services are digitised to ensure prudent regulation of the services provided in the dispensing of medications and other services."
The launch of a national electronic pharmacy platform, which will give over 30 million Ghanaians access to prescription medications in a more accessible, cost-effective, and quality-assured way while displacing subpar and counterfeit drugs, makes today's event historic.
The ePharmacy platform is configured such that each drug request made through the system is overseen by a group of qualified and licenced pharmacists, who, after verifying the medicine's availability and legality, dispense it to the patient in a reliable way.
Dr. Bawumia pointed out that this will not only make medications freely available and encourage competitive pricing, but it will also aid in lowering the sale of illicit pharmaceuticals.
"Most of the time, finding affordable and trustworthy pharmacies to get prescriptions requires folks to go quite a distance. The Vice President highlighted that this circumstance frequently results in pharmacy owners taking advantage of consumers' susceptibility to raise costs or provide bogus alternatives to the desired drug.
"Online shopping is simple and practical. But you should exercise caution if you're thinking about ordering medications online. Unfortunately, a lot of websites and online stores offer drugs without a prescription. If you purchase illicit medications offline or online, you run the risk of spending money on something that may or may not have any impact. In the worst case scenario, the medication may have fatal adverse effects or put your life in danger.
"The National ePharmacy Platform, or NEPP for short, was introduced with the intention of making medications available in a safe and secure manner, as well as to save time and money."
Dr. Bawumia noted that by connecting the ePharmacy platform to regulatory organisations like the Food and Drugs Authority, it will be simpler to authenticate medications and also handle other issues.
I am very delighted that this has been linked to the Food and Drugs Authority database for pharmaceutical safety, making it simple to verify that the medications being offered online are authorised for sale in Ghana.
The appropriate management of these sorts of medications through NEPP will significantly minimise the ease of access to narcotic and hazardous medications.
"This, I believe, will address four key concerns in the provision of pharmacy services; reduction in the sale of unlicensed medicines, ensuring confidentiality of health information, privacy of patients' medical records, and minimization of counterfeit and substandard medication in the country," the author says.
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