Amar Ramadin, the minister of health, predicts that RGD pharmacies would likely be shut down. People are still too early in the process to accurately predict when and why it will happen. Internal discussions have been held to determine how efficiency might be increased inside healthcare institutions and organizations.
The Regional Health Service (RGD) receives subsidies and receives money from the SZF as well. The RGD is legally permitted to run pharmacies, labs, and other businesses, although it is mostly based in the coastal plain. Many pharmacies couldn’t get the supplies they needed. “You have to supply nearly 43 pharmacies, and the RGD database has nearly 110,000 persons. The private pharmacies are mainly centered in Paramaribo, Wanica and a number in Commewijne. In the other districts there are no private pharmacies, people go to the RGD. We need to look at the productivity of the pharmacies and how profitable it is for the organization to maintain a pharmacy like this,” says Minister Ramadhin.
“We are still busy with the analyses, 14 have already been identified that may be closed. The medicines released can be used to better supply the other districts”. Closing a pharmacy seems to be detrimental, but it does improve efficiency somewhat, so that people in the districts have greater and wider access to medication. “They sometimes seem drastic measures, but the people have opted for a new approach. If we continued to do things traditionally as they are, we would have stayed where we were”. Improving efficiency after a good analysis and good assessment, not from memory but with good data and substantiation, one should be open to that, according to the minister.
