Establishment of Pharmacies through Conversion of Existing Infrastructure, Internal Human Resources Capability and Offender Labour

Availability and access to medicines is critical in ensuring the provision of comprehensive primary health care services to the inmate population. The Department of Correctional Services (DCS) has 238 correctional centres across South Africa. These correctional centres have clinics that cater for the health needs of all inmates. When the project started there were 18 pharmacies responsible for provision of pharmaceutical services to all 243 correctional centres. This meant that medicines and other supplies had to be collected from pharmacies which were far from the correctional centres. The long turnaround time for the provision of treatment to the sick inmates was not acceptable due to the risk of medical-legal complications and poor health outcomes for the inmates.