South Africa: Community Pharmacies Take Strain

Still catching their breath after the introduction of tough dispensing rules, community pharmacies in small towns have been dealt a further blow as the health department issues thousands of dispensing licences to health practitioners. Taki Kyriacos is packing it in. After 26 years as the only pharmacist in the small Eastern Cape farming community of Stutterheim, Kyriacos says he can no longer make a living. He primarily blames Government moves to hand out dispensing licences to any doctor or health practitioner who applies for one for the situation that now challenges his very existence.