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The reason for the drug shortage
Dear Editor,
The concept of supply chain is little known to anyone as a profession much less a practical approach and it is the reason for our current drug shortages. There are very few in Guyana that practices this profession and even if they do, it is not in its entirety. In 2010 Guyana was named by the Amazon Malaria Initiative as having one of the best public drug supply system in South and Latin America, which proves that we had that ability.
During the period 2007 to 2011 all non-life saving drugs was at 85% to 90% availability in all health facilities and lifesaving drugs were 100% available for 95% of a calendar year. This was the best it has ever been in Guyana’s history and it was because of a special focus on building a strong supply chain system, which unfortunately never continued after 2011.
Regardless of the criticism on sole sourcing, it was a mechanism that was put in place to save guard our health system from chronic shortages similar to what we are experiencing now. However, it should not be the only mechanism in place, since it is also necessary to develop other suppliers in country so that there are options. Minister Norton who was then shadow Minister of Health when the PPP was in power believed that everything that is wrong with drug supply was due to sole sourcing, as such he had promised that by stopping that practice, shortages would be solved. Today we see that there are more shortages than ever before.
The Government must acknowledge that they are not yet equip to solve this problem alone and they should seek support from technical persons in the field of supply chain. I believe health care should be non-political and everyone should support the Government on this. It is not simply about buying more drugs and supplies, instead it requires a multi prong approach that should be implemented systemically throughout the supply chain. This takes time to build and it is a very fragile system to maintain in rich countries, much less a country like ours.
The US Government under their PEPFAR program has been supporting us for 10 years mainly in the field of HIV/AIDS drugs and it has proven successful, but this is a small fraction of the health supply system and it is easier to manage. There is urgent need for this system to be the way it was back in 2007-2011 and improve thereafter but it will have to be a bi-partisan issue.
Malcolm Watkins
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