Новини
Mobile pharmacies are expanding their geographical coverage – and getting to even more communities in the Kyiv region
26 december 2024
Mobile pharmacy points appeared in the Myronivka community, Kyiv region in early December. Pharmacists took medicines and set off to visit remote villages without any standard pharmacies. The initiative is implemented by MHP-Gromadi Charitable Foundation and Ukrvaktsyna SE of the MOH of Ukraine. People can get a pharmacist’s advice, purchase prescription and non-prescription medicines, and also order currently non-available drugs at the mobile pharmacy.
This year, we conducted a study in communities and interviewed local residents about their requests and needs. That said, as a charitable foundation intending to make communities worth living in, we should learn their most acute problems. In the Myronivka community, social workers identified a significant demand for healthcare and pharmaceutical services. In turn, this once again confirmed the MOH statistics for 2023: only 11% of Ukrainian villages have operating pharmacies, and more than 20 thousand lack these institutions. Therefore, we launched a joint project to create a link between access to medicines and remote communities. Thus, our mobile pharmacy point was established in cooperation with Ukrvaktsyna SE of the MOH of Ukraine.
According to Oleksandr Ponomariov, the director of Ukrvaktsyna SE of the MOH of Ukraine, the priority is to ensure that medicines are available for Ukrainians. Terefore, the enterprise supported the initiative and helped MHP-Gromadi CF to expand the geography of mobile pharmacy points to another community in the Kyiv region.
For our part, we paid special attention to the Accessible Medicines Program intended to allow patients to get the necessary medicines free of charge or with a minor surcharge, which ensures the relevant level of medical care for everyone. We are working to expand the geography coverage of the mobile pharmacy point project so that everyone can benefit from the Accessible Medicines Program.
Local residents can use the Accessible Medicines service and get their drugs for free or at a discount subject to a prescription from a family doctor. In this case, they need to arrange a visit to a doctor and get a prescription for a particular drug.
During the first three days, almost 120 people from 10 villages of the Myronivka community visited the mobile pharmacy. They mostly bought cardiovascular agents, sedatives, and anti-inflammatory medicines.
I bought blood pressure medicines and some cold remedies as they would always come in handy. If I have to go to Myronivka, I need to pay for the bus ticket, spend time, and stand in line, so I waste the whole day. And here I get both the pharmacy and the medicine almost in my yard. This is a great deal for us, the elderly.
A mobile pharmacy in the Kyiv region is a pilot project of MHP-Gromadi CF and Ukrvaktsyna SE of the MOH of Ukraine. The organizers are planning to cover other regions of Ukraine next year, namely, the Dnipropetrovsk, Lviv, and Vinnytsia regions.