The issue with drugs is mainly a supply chain one

Nov 11, 2021 Letters

Dear Editor,

Kaieteur News – In a recent video posted on social media by Prime Minister Mottley titled “We Must Rise”, the Prime Minister emphasises the unseen value of the Caribbean people and makes an appeal to all creatives in the region, to think at scale. This post was (in my view) not only timely and pertinent, but came with every bit of class, authenticity and TRUTH that the Prime Minister is known for the world over.
In recent parliamentary proceedings, I watched live as an REO faced questions about the supply
of drugs to his Region. His responses appeared to be inadequate and the feeling in the room was that he was not on top of things. Questions emerged about the integrity of the process involving the timely delivery of drugs to the provincial areas of the country. This is not a technical challenge wholly specific to any one Region in this country. The simple fact of the matter is that it is difficult to manage the supply of drugs and the process by which drugs are sourced and deployed. In my view, no one authority can be thrown under the bus for these inefficiencies. There seems to be a lack of coordinated thinking with respect to the supply of drugs, from central to local government and, as a result, a lot of lambasting is occurring, rather than rigorous problem solving, which the problem so rightly deserves.
Drugs have expiration dates. Some drugs have specific storage requirements (refrigeration);
some drugs are not very durable and do not have much shelf life to begin with. Further, drugs are
usually delivered on demand – for example, it makes no sense to stock a large quantity of a drug at a clinic in a far-out area if there is no demand for that drug. Maybe the drug was requested last year and finally made it to the region in the current year, only to expire a few weeks later. It is also difficult to predict the demand for drugs without a deep understanding of the state of health in the Region. Add to that the fact that the transport infrastructure is not the same across the country. Mathematically, these situations would be interesting to formulate and optimize. Timely data alone can solve a big chunk of this problem. I envision systems of communication that update relevant authorities about stock needs in real-time. These types of decisions are obviously data-driven and require tactical responses, not just yearly requests. Lots of research, analysis and planning would be required to get going but it is what we must do. The delivery of drugs could even be automated. For example, I can even see drones being involved in some cases.
Editor, one such buzzword that may win keyword of the year at the search engines is the
keyword “supply chain”. The Regional drug problem in Guyana is an example of a supply chain problem. It is not a political problem, or a racial problem, or is it “corrupt”. The University of Guyana recently initialised a Master’s programme for Supply Chain Management. My feeling is that there is going to be interesting times ahead for skilled creatives. As I write this, I see that electrification throughout the country is not optional. Internet penetration is not optional. Timely polls and population data are not optional. Special purpose web applications (think real-time dashboards and timelines) at clinics, hospitals, Regions and drug bonds are not optional. New infrastructure can also change the game. We have many more problems to which these tools can be applied. Editor, I am excited about the future of Guyana, how about you?

Sincerely,
Emille Giddings

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