Structure

Pharmacy department is one of the major departments in MTRH whose services are enjoyed in every corner of the Hospital and Western Kenya as a whole.
It is comprised of the following units:-

1.Casualty Pharmacy
This unit is open for 24 hours throughout the year and is one of the busiest pharmacies in the Hospital. It mainly serves the outpatients and the patients in transit to the wards.  During the night, this pharmacy serves the wards in case of need and even other pharmacies during instances when drugs need to be availed in one pharmacy or another.  This pharmacy is situated next to the Ambulatory clinics.

2.OPD/Main Pharmacy
This Pharmacy serves the outpatients who are mostly from the Consultant Clinics and occasionally patients from the Ambulatory clinics during the instances when casualty pharmacy is congested. It also serves the members of staff and prisoners.

3.Amenity Pharmacy
Situated at the Private Wing 1 (Amenity), the pharmacy serves clients who seek premier services in this institution. It serves both the inpatients and the outpatients and is open 24 hours throughout the year including public holidays.

4.Memorial PharmacyIt is situated at the Private Wing II (Memorial) and just like the Amenity pharmacy; it is open for 24 hours, 365 days and serves those seeking premier services a majority of whom are employees of corporate bodies.

5.Inpatient Pharmacy
This Pharmacy is situated next to Ward 7 (Faraja) and is one of the biggest and busiest pharmacies and serves all the wards situated around its locality.  It also serves the main theatre and the ICU. 

6.Nyayo Pharmacy
The Nyayo Pharmacy is open from 8.00am to 6.00pm throughout the week.  It is situated at the Nyayo wards and serves all the wards situated in this part of the Hospital including the psychiatric ward.

7.Bulk store A
This store is situated next to the OPD Pharmacy. It stores capsules and tablets and is a central point of collection for preparations by all units.  It is open from 8.00am to 5.00pm Monday through Friday.
8.Bulk Store B
It is situated next to Bulk store A.  This is where syrups, injectables, eye drops and topical preparations are stored upon receipt from the supplies.  It is also a central point of collection for all the Pharmacy units.  Between Bulk store A and B is a cold room where we store all the fridge items.

9.Manufacturing Unit
This is the Pharmaceutical production unit which prepares distilled water, detergents, disinfectants like povidone iodine solution, methylated and surgical spirits etc. Following the installation of a reverse osmosis machine by the St. Luke foundation, a Tanzanian-based NGO, the unit shall soon embark on production of Intravenous Fluids like normal saline, dextrose 5%, 10%, 50%, Hartmanns solution, Darrows solution etc. The unit further intends to embark on preparation of eye drops and other extemporaneous preparations.

10.STI/TB
This is a small Pharmacy situated next to the OPD pharmacy that mainly deals with anti-TB drugs and a bit of the STI drugs.  These drugs are wholly sourced from Kenya Medical and Supplies Agency (KEMSA) depot in Eldoret.

11.Ampath Pharmacy
This Pharmacy is situated at the AMPATH Centre. It is fairly a big Pharmacy that serves mainly the seropositive patients.  This is where one would find the whole range of Anti Retrovirals including other medications which are offered free to the patients.  It also works closely with the AMPATH satellite clinics found all over Western Kenya for purposes of availing quality health care closer to deserving patients.

Personnel

Pharmacy personnel is comprised of three Pharmacists, who are holders of Bachelor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Nairobi and 49 Pharmaceutical Technologists who are holders of Diploma in Pharmaceutical Technology from various colleges in the country. We, however, expect the number to rise with the Hospital rapidly expanding. There are also 11 chemical technologists manning the manufacturing unit. We shall soon have a Pharmacist heading this unit upon commencement of the production of IV fluids in line with the regulations provided by CAP 244 and CAP 245 laws of Kenya governing production and handling of pharmaceutical products.

Relationship with Neighbouring Health Institutions and other Bodies

We enjoy a mutually beneficial relationship with several bodies within and without the locality of MTRH.

We are in touch with neighbouring District Hospitals and Provincial Hospitals through constant consultations regarding the day to day running of pharmaceutical services, new trends and changes in the pharmaceutical world etc. We occasionally receive donations of drugs from other institutions just like we donate to the neighbouring health institutions, all in the patients’ interest.

We collaborate with the Moi University, School of medicine especially the association of Medical students who occasionally benefit form our drug donations which are used to successfully run community medical camps in various parts of the country.

We offer internship/attachment training to students and interns from all the training colleges in the country throughout the year. We recently started receiving pharmacy students from Purdue University (U.S) and it is our hope that, under this arrangement, we would be able to strengthen MTRH’s position as a training centre of repute.

We also wish to acknowledge the tremendous assistance we receive from the Indiana University Field Director, Prof. Joe Mamlin who has made it possible for us to receive drug donations worth hundreds of millions of shillings from the Eli lily Pharmaceuticals in the U.S which is given to patients for free. It would be impossible to avail these drugs in reasonable quantities to the deserving patients were it not for the efforts of Prof. Mamlin because these drugs are very expensive our budgetary limitations notwithstanding. Once again, we remain greatly indebted to efforts of Prof. Mamlin.

It is worthwhile to mention that recently MTRH, in collaboration with Indiana University, joined the league of Hospitals that perform Kidney transplants and the Pharmacy department is proud to be associated with these developments. This is because the responsibility of availing the very crucial anti-rejection drugs was bestowed on the department and even though we were doing it for the first time, we did it flawlessly not once but twice and the fact that the four kidney recipients are healthy and going on with their lives is our utmost source of inspiration.

The department is also proud to be associated with the drug formulary list [produced by Pharmacy and Therapeutic Committee] that was officially launched in September 21, 2007 by the Hospital’s Director Prof. Haroun arap Mengech. MTRH is the first public Hospital in Kenya to have a drug formulary list.