FPD Affiliates

The pharmacy workforce is a critical part of any health system and planning for an adequate South African pharmacy workforce is important if high quality pharmaceutical services are to be delivered to the whole population. This includes the qualification of pharmacists and pharmacy support workers, and the optimal use of existing pharmacy personnel. It is estimated that there are 19 750 pharmacists in South Africa including interns and community pharmacists who are presently serving their community service year.

All areas of pharmacy practice in the country report shortages community, hospital, industry, and academia, with vacancy rates for pharmacists of up to 76% reported in the public sector in one province.

Due to the shortage of pharmacists, pharmacy mid-level workers, mainly pharmacist’s assistants, play an important role in the provision of pharmaceutical services in the country. The South African Pharmacy Council’s vision for 2030 include 24 000 pharmacists and 22 000 pharmacy support personnel being registered and serving the health needs of South Africans

It is estimated that in April 2023, there are 4 072 learner Basic and 2 302 learner Post Basic pharmacist’s assistants busy studying to achieve their qualification. There are 3 401 qualified Basic learners and 16 488 qualified Post Basic learners. The Pharmacy Council has finalised the curriculum for the inclusion of the qualifications for pharmacist’s assistants at NQF level 4 (Basic) and NQF level 5 (Post Basic) as part qualifications into Pharmacy Technician (PT) qualification at NQF level 6.

Expertise and Services

• Pharmaceutical Sector Training
  At any time, HSA has about 1 500 learners enrolled for the National (Basic) and Further Education and Training (Post Basic) Pharmacist’s Assistance programme. The present course will see enrolments only until 30 June 2024. Thereafter, the new course for Pharmacy Technician will be implemented.
• Dispensing for Healthcare Professionals Course
  This course is based on the recommended standard for the dispensing course for prescribers in terms of Act 101 of 1965 as amended, which was developed by the South African Pharmacy Council, in consultation with the other statutory health councils. Licencing with the relevant authority as a dispensing healthcare professional can only take place once the certificate is awarded. We have updated and re-accredited the course with the South African Pharmacy Council (SAPC). The course consists of four days of practical training and one day for assessments and practical exams.
• Industry courses
  Industry courses include Medicine Registration in South Africa for both pharmacists and regulatory assistants, Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) as well as immunisation and injection techniques.
  The course for Immunisation has recently been accredited by SAPC according to the latest curriculum and was implemented in January 2023.
  HSA also addresses the needs of the Quality Assurance personnel within the pharmaceutical industry with a distance course named Quality Management Systems (QMS), which presently consist of 14 modules that can be completed as distance modules. Twenty modules are available to expand knowledge and skills for Continued Professional Development (CPD) are also available

HSA has created a portal for the training of pharmacists and pharmacy support personnel called PharmEd. This portal gives access to courses that addresses practice management issues and other general topics of interest.

As part of our offering to the health sector, we have introduced skills programmes on subjects such as stock management, an introduction to the pharmaceutical sector and diseases as well as customer service, merchandising and sales.

• Management
  HSA has approval from LG SETA for a course in Generic Management at NQF level 4. This course is aimed at new entrants to the workforce who have ambitions to enter the supervisory or management levels. The course can be completed as distance education over 12 months.
  It can be supplemented with an FET Certificate in Business Administration (NQF 4).

Our population medicine product, The Value Care Team (TVCT) is structured as a multidisciplinary team of GPs, a consulting physicians and associate allied healthcare professionals, directed by a Business Manager and employs nurse care coordinators. There are subcontracts for palliative care; with a 24/7 health support call centre and a hospital case management service. The approach includes the POPI enrolling of target patient populations, and the creation of complete and accurate patient information. Care Coordinators assess severity using disease specific, frailty, mental health tools as well as the degree of social isolation. Multidisciplinary team forums then link every patient to individual care plans which are then loaded into the workflow system that specifies tasks and monitors progression. Forums include local clinical and social partners such as from subacute hospitals, the local hospice, and psychiatric facilities. Care plans provide comprehensive proactive care that improves outcomes for patient populations. A new Value Based Care Population healthcare project was launched in September 2019 in Pretoria North, with the Government Employee Medical Scheme (GEMS) as the anchor medical scheme, and this has been renewed for 2021.

The GP Care Cell is a PEPFAR sponsored HIV focused product for non-Scheme members that links our managed network of GPs to the Gauteng Health Department for access to antiretroviral therapy and NHLS pathology tests for the screening, identification and management of people living with HIV. The GPCC has run projects in Tshwane, Ekurhuleni, Johannesburg, and Sedibeng Health districts. It has the potential to be a national franchise model for public private collaboration.

The Birthing Team is our maternity product, where the team is made up of midwives backed by obstetricians, and the aim is to change the current culture of the default delivery being the caesarean section (around 80% currently in the private sector) and instead do normal vaginal deliveries whenever possible. TBT has done some 2,000 deliveries for self funded women, and two of the 3 major units have achieved 40% CS rates, with ongoing reduction as the Teams mature. TBT is now contracting with medical schemes.

The Cardiac Focused Factory is a product in development, which aims to efficiently use cardiac catheterisation laboratories to provide angiograms with or without coronary interventions plus pacemaker insertions at significantly reduced prices, based on a Team model that achieves economies of scale including staff substitutional and switching much of the work up and post procedure care from the hospital back into the PHC service.

Our courses offered as a learnership or structured skills programs include:

• Interactive Media
• 3D Animation
• Systems Development
• Technical Support
• Database Development
• Systems Development port