State of the arts drugs supply bond opens

Mar 09, 2013 News

– Health Minister draws blank on cost

The government yesterday opened a state-of-the-art storage facility which will house medical drugs for distribution to the regional health facilities and to the Georgetown Public Hospital.
Called the Supply Chain Management Complex, the facility is located at Diamond, East Bank Demerara.
The size of the facility is 26,691 square feet and consists of modern racks and refrigeration applications which cater for products such as vaccines and insulin.

The new medical storage bond

The facility was built to international standards and is being regarded as one of the largest of its kind in the Caribbean.
Minister of Health, Dr Bheri Ramsaran, could not give a cost for building the facility. He said that since various donor agencies were involved, he would have to tally up the contributions of each of them.
However, the Government Information Agency (GINA) had indicated that the cost would be around $500 million.
The facility is electronically managed and has all the prerequisites including controlled temperature and fire response mechanisms such as smoke detectors and sprinklers.
Dr Ramsaran said that the cost of the facility was more than originally intended, because locations were switched.
At the opening ceremony yesterday, he chronicled the “transformational” nature of the facility, noting that in 1992 medical drugs were being stored at a bond at Mud Flats, Kingston which was not air conditioned, was rat infested and dusty.
He said that the Kingston bond was dilapidated and there was no concept of warehousing.
Later on, the Ministry of Health used private facilities to house medical drugs and was faced with heavy losses due to expired drugs.
The new facility has built-in temperature-controlled rooms to ensure that medicines do not expire prematurely. It will make use of efficient and modern inventory systems to prevent spoilage and facilitate timely acquisition of needed medicines, while ensuring that Guyana’s population has access to pharmaceutical products of the highest quality.
Dr Ramsaran said that the new facility would do more than just store drugs. It is intended to determine the medical and pharmaceutical needs of the country, procure supplies in a timely manner and efficiently distribute them to health care institutions.
Once at Diamond, the drugs would be checked for quality and stored with the underlying principle being minimal storage time as the products will be distributed to the health facilities in a timely manner.

Inside the bond

The facility was built under the Supply Chained Management System (SCMS) of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) through USAID. It is implemented by the Partnership for Supply Chain Management, a non-profit entity, comprising 13 bodies, among them private sector, non-governmental and faith-based organisations.
At yesterday’s ceremony, US Ambassador Brent Hardt reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to upholding the ideals of PEPFAR
Financed jointly by PEPFAR, through the United States-Agency for International Development and the Center for Diseases Control and Prevention, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the Global Fund, the new warehouse facility stands as an example of multi-donor collaboration and partnership with the Government of Guyana, which also contributed human and financial resources, the US Embassy stated.
The Embassy said the facility is expected to become a warehousing center of excellence in the Caribbean, facilitating distribution of medicines and significantly improving Guyana’s supply chain by housing essential medical commodities at one location.
“This impressive new warehouse is a product of the decade-long partnership that the United States and Guyana have forged under PEPFAR and stands as a physical ‘bricks and mortar’ achievement that serves to remind us not only of what we have accomplished together, but also of what remains to be done,” Hardt stated.
He said the real legacy of PEFAR is not in the structure of a building, but in the lives saved and in the lifesaving capacity that has been developed through PEPFAR.