Goodlife Pharmacy has received the Green Cross accreditation and an endorsement from the Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya (PSK) as the chain seeks to grow its footprint from the current 18 branches to over 30 branches before end of the year.
Goodlife has been standardising its services across all stores as it embarks on greater expansion in East Africa, since receiving a Ksh405 million investment from the International Finance Corporation and acquiring three integrated pharmacy chains.
“The Green Cross Charter programme was developed to ensure patients are provided with high quality pharmaceutical care country-wide. As Goodlife expands, Kenyans are now assured that they strictly adhere to pharmaceutical care best practice and governance,” said Dr Esther Karimi, the Chief Executive Officer of PSK.
Some of the requirements for accreditation include proper premise condition, minimum required equipment, lock and key storage facilities for expired and restricted drugs and a semi-private client counseling area.”Goodlife is PSK Green Cross accredited, which is considered as a gold standard in pharmacy practice and governance. A pharmaceutical chain can achieve a successful Green cross audit when there are concerted efforts from the pharmacy staff, it no mean feat,” said Dr. Sajel Shah, the Goodlife Chief Pharmacist.
Dr. Peter Barker, the Goodlife Chief Operations Officer said the chain had introduced a continual professional development and education for its pharmacists and pharmtechs, while increasing the use of technology to improve the delivery of pharmaceutical care through digitized pharmacy medication records, drug information expiry warnings and patient SMS reminder alerts.
“We are seeking to lower the cost of medicines and grow our share of the country’s pharmaceutical market currently estimated at Ksh4.4 billion and growing annually at 22 percent, we can only do that if the quality of our services is a notch higher above the rest,” said Dr. Barker.
Gabriel Ochieng, the Business Development Director at Goodlife cautioned that the Kenya pharmaceuticals industry is too fragmented and procures supplies in small quantities. “Our goal is to provide affordable and quality healthcare through developing a chain that has the clout to negotiate better prices with drug manufactures and a controlled supply chain.”
Goodlife has already created strategic partnerships with healthcare and beauty suppliers and other assorted partners such as L’Oréal, Vichy & La Roche-Posay, Astra Zeneca, GSK and petroleum companies for outlets. Besides adhering to code of ethics and standards for pharmacy practice guidelines set by PSK, Dr. Sejal Shah noted that pharmacies could also help in “killing counterfeits” by sourcing high quality product through reputable pharmaceutical wholesalers and providing an audit track on all supplies.
Dr. Karimi emphasized that conditions set out by the Green Cross Accreditation are meant to strengthen our professional credibility in Pharmacy, in addition to promoting safe and effective pharmaceutical care.
