Health authorities have been developing a plan to track the supply of codeine from manufacturers all the way to patients, Spotlight can confirm.
This information would feed into a centralised computer system used by health workers nationally, which would flag patients who were requesting too much of the drug across different dispensers. She said the upcoming draft guidelines would stipulate the information that companies and health authorities would have to provide to Sahpra when dispensing the drug.
The new stage of the Codeine Care Initiative is one way of empowering health workers to monitor these kinds of patients and prevent them from falling through the cracks. Moodley, who chairs the forum, added as part of this phase, a computer programme was developed, which could capture the ID numbers of patients buying codeine, and generate a warning message on pharmacists' screens when they were asking for problematic amounts across different pharmacies.When this happened, depending on the specific case, health workers could"refuse , educate , or suggest alternatives", according to the secretariat.
"So, where the patients were concerned about their health, they would give you consent, but where there was a potential for overuse of the codeine they … could refuse to give their ID numbers," Moodley said. under the Medicines Act, which made it mandatory for healthcare providers to capture the ID numbers of anyone buying a medicine scheduled 2 or higher . depending on the dose and whether they contain additional active ingredients .
This could be happening for a few reasons, according to Andy Gray, a senior lecturer in pharmacology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
South Africa: Surprise Comeback of South Africa's Ex-President Jacob Zuma Could Challenge ANCSouth Africa's ex-president Jacob Zuma is running a visible and noisy campaign for May's elections against his former party, the ruling African National Congress (ANC), another bump on a difficult road for the historical post-apartheid party.
Source: allafrica - 🏆 1. / 99 Read more »
South Africa: How the Mandela Myth Helped Win the Battle for Democracy in South AfricaAnalysis - Political history scholar Jonny Steinberg's 2023 book Winnie & Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage is a double biography of South Africa's most famous political figures - Nelson Mandela and Winnie Madikizela Mandela - and their role in the country's struggle for democracy.
Source: allafrica - 🏆 1. / 99 Read more »
Source: allafrica - 🏆 1. / 99 Read more »
Source: allafrica - 🏆 1. / 99 Read more »
South Africa: 30 Years On, South Africa Still Dismantling Racism and Apartheid's LegacyRethabile Ratsomo said it's the little things that remind her of her perceived 'place' in South African society.
Source: allafrica - 🏆 1. / 99 Read more »
South Africa: EFF and MK Party Dominate South Africa's Online Election DebateIn the lead-up to South Africa's 2024 national elections, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) are dominating the online conversation, according to this biweekly report from the Centre for Analytics and Behavioural Change, which analyzed the conversation between 18 March and 1 April 2024.
Source: allafrica - 🏆 1. / 99 Read more »