The community of St Cuthbert’s Mission (Pakuri) located on the Soesdyke/Linden Highway, now has its very first pharmacy allowing its residents easy access to much needed medical supplies. ‘Simon’s Pharmacy’ – was established in the area on July 19, 2020 by Emmanuel Simon who grew up in the community. He told the Pepperpot Magazine that after establishing his first pharmacy in Soesdyke some five years ago he then realised the need for a similar facility in his home community.
“My main pharmacy is on Soesdyke, I can make things better for them especially pensioners. The health centres in the outlying communities they are always out of medications and stuff like that, so I decided that I had to establish a pharmacy in my home community,” said Simon.
He stated that there is a need for persons, especially elderly persons to be able to access the necessary medications and thus in creating the pharmacy he decided to offer a 10 percent discount throughout the year to the pensioners.

Simon stated that he ensured to choose an ideal area to ensure easy access to the people of St. Cuthbert’s Mission. The location of the pharmacy, he said, is more densely populated so many more persons would have access to it. He explained that it is in the central area just five minutes away from the health centre, the church, the school Toshao’s office and one of the community’s ICT hubs.

“I think its beneficial because sometimes persons may need to come from a distance maybe an hour and a half and they may come to the health centre only for it to have a few Panadol and not many of the other medications that that may be recommended by the doctor. So I see it as convenient since they can take five minutes more and come to my pharmacy and be able to get a variety of things as long as they can afford to buy it,” stated Simon.
He stated that he believes the pharmacy not only helps the residents but helps in great part the resident doctors in having access to a wider range of medication that they can recommend or prescribe to their patients. He further explained that the health centre stocks mainly the essential drug list such as penicillin, saline, diclofenac as essentials but not drugs such as Vitamin C.