“The service is aimed at patients who live or work closer to a post office [instead of] a government clinic.  The main benefit of the service is longer service hours. Post office branches are open until 5pm on weekday and until 12:30pm on Saturday,” Sapo said on Tuesday.

The collection service is available at 342 post offices in all provinces except the Western Cape.

These post offices were selected because they comply with the requirements of the Department of Health.

Sapo said medication that requires specialised storage, such as cold storage, cannot be collected from one of their branches.

“Patients of government clinics who want to collect their medication from their local post office should arrange it with their clinic. The Department of Health sends the patient an SMS when the medication is ready for collection and patients have 14 days to collect it before the medication is returned to the Department of Health,” Sapo said. 

SAnews.gov.za