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Regional consumption reports necessary for proper drug procurement – Dr. Ramsammy
Former Health Minister, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy.
Kaieteur News – Former Health Minister and current Advisor to the Ministry of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, has highlighted the need for regional consumption reports to ensure drug procurement is properly done and prevent the wastage of funds.
Speaking during a virtual press conference on Monday, Dr. Ramsammy outlined that one of the prerequisites for efficient drug procurement is “good information” which can be obtained through a consumption report. He also noted that “Whether it has to do with infectious diseases like malaria and TB and HIV, etc., or the chronic diseases like diabetes etc., the consumption reports from the region represent the fundamental principle through which you determine how much you will buy.”
It was stated that in every region there is someone responsible for pharmaceutical supplies. That person usually conducts stock checks, and would usually wait until there is a shortage to report.
However, Dr. Ramsammy also outlined that every region has a consumption pattern. He said that it was found that two critical pieces of information were not being used. “One, what we have or don’t have and secondly, the pattern or usage in the region,” he highlighted. The information systems across the health sector were not being kept updated and therefore pertinent data, like, what was available and what was not available could not be used to determine what is procured.
“Overtime exactly when those things were abandoned or those things were no longer available to the technical persons, we don’t know, but certainly something happened between 2015 and 2017 where the system crashed,” the former Health Minister noted.
Technical personnel at the Materials Management Units were simply provided with data on what drugs are incoming and played little role in determining what had to be procured, according to Dr. Ramsammy.
Further, in many instances, sole sourcing was done, not based on actual needs but on “spending money,” hence the current drug shortage crisis is existent today. It was also stated that in some cases there was no need for certain medications that were bought, so there was a stockpile with no one using them. Some of the drugs procured also had short expiry dates, so, before they could be dispatched to the respective facilities a lot would have already expired.
The electronic systems at the MMU’s were also said to be “dysfunctional” so there could be no proper record of drugs and medicines going in and out.
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