The South African Post Office has introduced a new initiative that will allow medication to be sent to its branches for collection. Specifically, this initiative is for patients of governement clinics who can’t always reach the clinic before closing time.
The service will be available across all 342 branches across the country, except for those in the Western Cape.
The initiative will be a massive help for those who live closer to a Post Office than a clinic. Some of these people aren’t able to reach their clinic before closing time. Since P.O. branches are open from Monday to Saturday and open until 5:00pm, it offers a much bigger collection window.
The Post Office also mentioned that its branches are nowhere near as busy as they were before. Once the collection point for the R350 social relief of distress grants moved, the branches have seen a major reduction of people. This will make the process for people collecting medication as smooth and simple as possible.
If you’re someone who’d like to use this new service, then speak to your current clinic about arranging to send your medication to your preferred Post Office. Once arrangements have been made, an SMS will be sent to notify you when the medication is ready to collect. Patients will have 14 days in which to collect the medication, otherwise it will be returned to the Department of Health.
Giving the Post Office some more work
The collection of medication isn’t the only change we could be seeing from the Post Office. A draft for the South African Post Office Amendment Bill intends to greatly expand the postal service. Rather than only delivering parcels, the Post Office could provide “diversified and expanded services” in the near future. This expansion would include e-commerce and financial services, a new realm for the P.O. business.
Here’s a list of the services the bill is proposing the Post Office might offer;
- Government services
- Agency services
- Financial services
- E-commerce
- Logistics
- Retail
- Authentication services
- Warehousing services
- Serve as a ‘digital hub’ for businesses and communities.
“Furthermore, the amendment allows the Post Office to differentiate its service offerings at different post offices and service points based on the needs assessment for a particular area. This is also to ensure the effective and efficient usage and enhancement of services offerings by SAPO to communities,” reads the bill.
Read More: The SA Post Office launches online vehicle licence renewal portal
This means we could be seeing varied services at each P.O. if the bill were to become reality. Fees could vary too, from one branch to the next. These fees would need to be approved by a regulator, to help insure the prices don’t get out of hand. This way, it makes sure the Post Office won’t be overwhelmed with all its new services. It will also help the public service recover the added costs, so as to not operate at a loss.
Change could be good
We’re not exactly sure what these changes would mean in the grand scheme of the postal service. It could be a well-needed shakeup of the industry, or it could flood the Post Office with work and slow them down even further. Even so, it’s worth a shot.
This hopefully won’t be the last initiative we see the government implement in order to help its people. If done right, it could bring some much needed relief to those in need.
Source: BusinessTech
