Exhibitors at the 11th SA Aids Conference pulled all stops showcasing their innovations which will help make medication easily accessible to those living with HIV.
Over 3 000 delegates are part of the conference which closes on Friday.
One of the innovations that caught the attention of many is the Right-e-pharmacy which is a smart locker used to distribute chronic mediation.
The managing director of Right-e-Pharmacy, Fanie Hendriksz says, “We call it a smart locker and the project is called collect and go. This solution is designed around the people it is patients centric, what we looked at was what is convenient for a patient and sometimes people don’t want to stand in a queue for various reasons like stigma.”
“This allows them to go and stand literally for two minutes collect their medicine and get out of there it is also for comorbidity. There is no stigma with this current facility it could be in a shopping centre it could be at a school, could be at a university and it is unmanned the nice thing about it is it is highly effective and have a big footprint,” Hendriksz adds.
Health Minister Joe Phaahla closes SA Aids Conference:
‘It makes your life very easy’
Thula Mkhize, who is one of the registered users of the innovative smart locker explains, “It makes your life very easy. I think one of the big things is around people collecting their medication is the queues, taking a day off, and a lot of disruptions in their lives and what this actually does it makes your life very easy; in the sense that, you only come to the locker once your meds are actually in the locker and you have received your one time pin. You get to the locker, you put in the one-time pin it opens and you go home in five minutes. You can go there at your leisure and when you go there you do not have to interact with anybody.”
