The Chief Pharmacist of the National Referral hospital, Julie Zinihite, has thanked the Rotary Club of Honiara for the timely donation of a brand new two door refrigerator, to be used for storage of highly sensitive cancer medicine.
The new fridge, designed specifically for such use, was presented by the President of the Rotary club in Honiara, Mr Sebastian Ilala.Previously Cytotoxics were stored together with other drugs such as insulin, eye drops, suppositories and pediatric formulations.
"This is the first time after so many years we are able to store Cytotoxics separately from other drugs, it eliminates the risk of being contaminated by other drugs and medicine," said Ms Zinihite.
"So proper storage is very important, the medicines themselves can cause cancer if spilled onto normal skin or inhaled."
As part of its drive to help improve the health sector Mr Ilala said Zinihite was also co-sponsored to attend a two weeks clinic pharmacy attachment on oncology in Melbourne early this year.
"So we not only seek to help improve the technical capacity of this important sector, we also seek to help where we can in improving facilities," said Mr Ilala.