Source: The Trentonian
Rahbar Trust, a nonprofit charity group, has launched a program that provides needy patients in Trenton with life-saving drugs for heart failure, hypertension and other chronic diseases at no cost.
Medical Home Pharmacy has agreed to dispense these medicines, meeting a need that has long existed in New Jersey’s capital city.
“The need is so great,” Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora said of the initiative. “This way the have-nots can be part of the haves” by receiving “top-quality medical care pharmaceuticals.”
Dr. Muhammad U. Mustafa, a founding member of Rahbar Trust, announced the free medicine initiative Thursday at the Medical Home Pharmacy establishment off North Olden and New York avenues.
“We care about humanity,” he said. “We want to make sure people are taken care of.”
Mustafa talked about the cycle of poverty as it relates to health and wellness. He said “it hurts” when doctors take care of patients who returned to hospital emergency rooms simply because they could not afford prescription-based medicine for their chronic sickness.
When an emergency room patient cannot afford medication, the patient is at risk of returning to the ER days later to deal with the same illness. “It’s dangerous,” Mustafa said, “and it can kill you.”
Seeking to prevent this revolving cycle, Mustafa in partnership with several physicians are providing free medicine to poor city residents suffering from chronic illnesses such as congestive heart failure, hypertension, coronary artery disease, diabetes and common infections requiring antibiotics.
Residents suffering from chronic disease and who cannot afford costly prescriptions may obtain them for free from these Medical Home Pharmacy locations:
828 N. Olden Ave., Trenton
521 S. Broad St., Trenton
1440 Pennington Road, Ewing
2108 S. Broad St. Suite 1, Hamilton.
“They will get the medicine,” said Mustafa, an interventional cardiologist who practices medicine in Trenton. “No questions asked.”
Mubin Kathrada, an elder member of North Trenton’s Masjid as-Saffat mosque, complimented Rahbar Trust and referenced a famous quote from the late boxing legend Muhammad Ali: “Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth.”
“Here we are echoing his thoughts,” Kathrada said, “putting it into practice.”