More than 250,000 people that have accessed the City Pharmacy (CPL) Nurse stations since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic will be greatly affected with the recent directive from the National Department of Health (NDOH) to close up all Nurse Stations throughout the country.
Founder of CPL Group Sir Mahesh Patel revealed this when questioning the Health Department’s motive in closing the Nurse Stations.
Sir Mahesh said there was no proper dialogue between the NDOH and the CPL Group before coming to this decision which leaves the question as to what the reasons are behind closing down a service that has helped a lot of sick people at a time when they cannot access efficient and effective health care.
“When you talk to our customers and patients, you will find that they are very grateful that we provide this service because firstly it’s unaffordable for grassroots to seek treatment at private clinics because of how expensive it is and secondly, if you have minor illnesses and such, you’ll get to wait 3 hours or so to be served at public clinics or hospitals.”
Sir Mahesh said they have written to the NDOH since late last year requesting for their license to be renewed, however they never got a response until 7 months later in July stating their refusal to renew their (CPL) operating licence for the nursing stations.
He said they were shocked to receive a letter on the 9th of December advising them to close down the Nurse Stations followed by the recent circular published in the media.
Sir Mahesh and the CPL Board have written another letter to the Health Secretary Dr Osborne Liko last Friday and have copied the Health Minister and the Prime Minister on the matter.
The letter was sent to request for a meeting between the parties concerned and find a way forward for the Nurse Stations to remain open and for NDOH to clarify if the nurse stations have breached certain protocols.
“This has come to a point where we really need to sit down and say, what’s the real intention here? What’s the motive? Who is going to win by closing the nurse stations down? And that’s the simple humanitarian question that needs to be answered,” Sir Mahesh said.
The CPL Group has also handed the matter over to their lawyers to take legal proceedings should there be a need to.
City Pharmacy Limited has operated in the country for over 35 years and they have over 20 Nurse Stations throughout the country that have been able to serve 250,000 people from all over the country.
The pharmacies have been given 14-days’ notice to close down the nurse stations.