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CATHERINE W GICHUKI
DOHA
As the siege imposed on Qatar by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt enters the third month, it has been business as usual for the pharmacies across the country with pharmacy officials saying they haven't experienced any shortage of medicines.
They expect the smooth functioning of the pharmacy sector to continue in the coming months as well.
Neighbouring countries like Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which cut off ties with Qatar on June 5, had been the country's major sources of medicines before the siege. But with the beginning of the blockade, Qatar successfully managed the shortage by procuring medicines from other countries.
An official from Al Hakeem Pharmacy told Qatar Tribune that the pharmacy has enough stock of drugs as the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) has implemented a mechanism to ensure availability of medicines across the country."We have sufficient quantity of drugs in our pharmacy to cater to our customers," she said.
She said the medicines coming from the blockading countries were substituted with medicines from other countries."These medicines that used to come from the neighbouring countries have substitutes and so, we haven't been affected," she said.
An official of Kulud Pharmacy said the siege has not affected his pharmacy."We haven't faced shortage of any medicine since the blockade started two months ago. Moreover, we still have stocks from those countries that have severed ties with Qatar," he said.
The official said the sales in the pharmacy are going on in the same scale compared with the same period last year."Medicines for chronic diseases sell more compared with others," he noted.
He added that the sale of sunscreen medications is very high during this season.
An official of a pharmacy who did not want to be named said they too have not experienced any medicine shortage due to the blockade."As you can see, this pharmacy is well stocked. We have our store in the industrial area and we haven't faced shortage of any medicine. We have 35 pharmacies across Qatar," she said.
During the initial phase of the blockade in June, several pharmacy officials had said their medicine stores were sufficiently stocked, and drugs such as painkillers that came from the UAE or Saudi Arabia had their alternatives from Denmark and Australia.
When the blockade started, the MoPH announced that it was well prepared to ensure medicine supplies and high quality healthcare services.
