The Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) has announced the launch of an SMS service to remind patients of their medication schedule via the health centers’ pharmacies that have already been automatically prescribed by the attending physician a week before the date of dispensing the medication. Through this service, the patients are reminded again of the schedule for replenishing the prescribed medication three days before the exact schedule, either through visiting the health center or through delivery services.

In this regard, the Director of Health Information Systems at PHCC, Alexandra Tarazi, said that the SMS service was developed through a joint effort between the departments of health information systems, pharmacy and information technology. This service, along with the medication delivery service, will also be available in the future on PHCC’s phone application "Nar'aakom" through the patient’s personal account. 

For her part, the Director of Pharmacy at PHCC, Dr. Manal Al-Zaidan pointed out that medication home delivery is still an ongoing service provided in collaboration with Qatar Post. The service could be requested by contacting health centers via WhatsApp numbers dedicated to each health center.

She further clarified that the home delivery service aims to reduce patients’ visits to health centers and thus limit COVID-19 spread. 

Patients can request the home delivery service by following four (4) simple steps: 

First: Contact the WhatsApp numbers of each health center from Sunday to Thursday (from 8 AM to 2 PM and from 4 PM to 10 PM), noting that the service stops during the weekend (Friday and Saturday).

Second: Send a WhatsApp message with the word “hello” to your registered health center number.

Third: The pharmacist from your health center will contact you as soon as possible.

Fourth: Medications will be delivered to your door by Qatar Post within two working days for a fee of 20 Qatari riyals to be paid to Qatar Post employees upon medication delivery.  As for medication fees for categories that are not exempt from payment, they will be paid online via credit card through the receipt of an SMS.