North West improves medication distribution

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Pretoria - The North West Department of Health has started implementing several measures to improve the distribution of medication to health facilities.

Health MEC Dr Magome Masike said the department has done an assessment, which shows that the availability of pharmaceutical and medical related items have been affected by two main factors -- the availability and distribution of stock.

“Stock availability from suppliers is affecting levels at the medical depot, while … distribution of stock from the depot is affecting availability at health facilities. A plan to turn around medical supplies and the medical depot is in full swing,” MEC Masike said.

He said they are trying to mitigate the challenges in supplier performance and to improve distribution from the medical depot to health facilities.

“A closed bid for procurement of pharmaceutical and medical related items, which are not on contract or not available from contracted suppliers, is being arranged as one of the intervention measures.

“An open bid is also being arranged for a provincial database for pharmaceuticals and surgical [services], which will be advertised very soon. A special emphasis on measures to improve distribution from the depot has also been undertaken,” MEC Masike said.

To this end, Masike said two distributors for transportation of stock from the depot to the facilities have been appointed and this has addressed the transport challenges that were previously encountered.

The department has also appointed 10 contract workers from 1 February 2016 to beef up depot operations, particularly the dispatch unit for distribution.

“Significant progress has been achieved in clearing the distribution backlog. Progress has also been achieved towards proper housekeeping, which is also essential for distribution to be enhanced,” said MEC Masike.

A dedicated team has been set up for issuing orders for ARVs, TB drugs and vaccines. Emergency orders are processed when received and due to availability of transport they are delivered daily.

Due to these interventions, the availability of essential drug list medicines has improved from 70% in the first quarter to 74.5% in the fourth quarter. – SAnews.gov.za