The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7247 p610
3 May 2003

This article
Reprint
Photocopy

News summary

Related websites
Sigma Pharmaceuticals (www.sigpharm.co.uk)
UniChem (www.unichem.co.uk)

UK companies help Dominican hospital with pharmacy supplies

A hospital in Dominica is to receive £100,000 worth of drugs donated by pharmaceutical companies in the United Kingdom.

Sigma Pharmaceuticals and its suppliers donated the stock after hearing of the hospital's plight from Hemant Patel, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's representative on the Commonwealth Pharmaceutical Association.

Mr Patel explained that Dominica is a poor country with an under-funded health service. Staff at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Dominica approached Mr Patel for help.

Bharat Shah, managing director of Sigma Pharmaceuticals, agreed to help Mr Patel. "We knew the situation in some Commonwealth countries was dire but we were moved by Mr Patel's appeal," commented Mr Shah.

Mr Shah explained that the reason so many medicines could be made available was because they had expiry dates left of between six and nine months. "We sent a list of the medicines we had available to the hospital and they requested which ones they wanted," he said. A range of medicines from skin care products to cardiovascular drugs plus additional products such as disinfectants were donated. The stock was dispatched on 24 April to be shipped to Dominica, watched by the local MP Claire Ward (Lab, Watford). It will arrive at the hospital in three weeks' time.