Medicines home-delivered in Dubai now

Medication from public pharmacies will soon be available for delivery to your doorstep, provided a doctor’s prescription is presented.

This was announced by the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) as part of an initiative to ease the burden on those who are less mobile or incapable of physically visiting a pharmacy.

There are two ways in which a delivery order can be placed, explained Sami Mana Ahmad bin Ahmad Ali, community medicine specialist registrar with the DHA.

“Patients can go to the pharmacy after they visited the doctor, and present the form they have been given.
“The medicine will be delivered without the need for the patient to wait.

“Or, the application can be done online without the need to visit any pharmacy. The doctor’s form will have to be uploaded on the DHA website, and the medicine can be ordered.”

The delivery service targets various people, among which the elderly, who are unable to visit the pharmacy personally for various reasons, patients who live in remote areas or those with a busy daily schedule, the doctor explained.
At the same time, it can be used for patients who require medication for a longer time.

“DHA pharmacies provide patients with medications for three months only.
“However, some patients need the medicines for an extended period of time such as six months or more.
“Instead of patients having to come back to us to collect the medicines, they will have a home delivery option.

“We will ensure medicines are delivered a week prior to the end of the three month period,” said Ali Sayed, Director, Pharmaceutical Services Department, DHA.

In any case, the patient is required to present a doctor’s prescription, iterated Sami.

“At DHA pharmacies no one could get any medication without a prescription. A doctor’s visit is always required.”
For medication that does not require a prescription, some private pharmacies offer delivery services.

The DHA is in the process of implementing smart pharmacies across its health facilities. The smart pharmacy system uses a robot to arrange medicines and dispense them.

Pharmacists simply need to store medicines into the robot's vault before the machine sorts out the medicines according to the near date of expiry and arranges them in specific shelves based on the barcode of the medicines.

The machines dispense the medicines and the pharmacist gives the medicines to the patient. The system will cut the patient waiting time by 90 per cent and is highly beneficial to both healthcare facilities and patients, claimed the DHA.

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.