Health experts and policymakers want people to have access to affordable and high-quality medical care. But in some developing countries, making quality healthcare available may first necessitate ensuring that essential medicines are available, such as anti-malaria pills and antibiotics.
... See More + The challenge of guaranteeing a steady supply is not only related to the financial side of paying for medicines. Zambia, the World Bank supported a project exploring how to guarantee the availability of essential medicines in often-remote health facilities. Based on the results, clinics in districts that were part of the pilot study are now able to order drugs directly from a central pharmacy. Donors and the Government of Zambia are working together to expand the program to the rest of the country. A pilot program, consisting of two different models for distribution, was initiated to test the best way to overcome the bottleneck at the district level. In Model A, a commodity planner was put in place at the district level. In Model B, health facilities submitted orders directly to the central Medical Stores Limited. The pilot underscores that successful distribution of drugs is about more than just money-or having the right amount of stocks available in central locations. Ensuring that medicines get to clinics is critical for a functioning health system. This Evidence to Policy note was jointly produced by the World Bank Group, the Strategic Impact Evaluation Fund (SIEF), and the British government's Department for International Development.
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Health experts and policymakers want people to have access to affordable and high-quality medical care. But in some developing countries, making quality healthcare available may first necessitate ensuring that essential medicines are available, such as anti-malaria pills and antibiotics.
... See More + The challenge of guaranteeing a steady supply is not only related to the financial side of paying for medicines. Zambia, the World Bank supported a project exploring how to guarantee the availability of essential medicines in often-remote health facilities. Based on the results, clinics in districts that were part of the pilot study are now able to order drugs directly from a central pharmacy. Donors and the Government of Zambia are working together to expand the program to the rest of the country. A pilot program, consisting of two different models for distribution, was initiated to test the best way to overcome the bottleneck at the district level. In Model A, a commodity planner was put in place at the district level. In Model B, health facilities submitted orders directly to the central Medical Stores Limited. The pilot underscores that successful distribution of drugs is about more than just money-or having the right amount of stocks available in central locations. Ensuring that medicines get to clinics is critical for a functioning health system. This Evidence to Policy note was jointly produced by the World Bank Group, the Strategic Impact Evaluation Fund (SIEF), and the British government's Department for International Development.
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The Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA) is a state-owned health logistics service company with the core mandate to procure, warehouse and distribute healthcare commodities to public sector health facilities and other public sector customers.
... See More + Since the inception of KEMSA in 2000 there have been multiple projects and initiatives to improve the performance of KEMSA. However, despite these efforts, and until recently KEMSA had struggled to effectively demonstrate any sustained improvements in performance. In the last 3-4 years, KEMSA under its new leadership has shown sustained improvements in performance, accountability and transparency. In the last year, the Government of Kenya has embarked on the devolution of health financing to the counties to ensure that services are delivered effectively and efficiently to communities. The devolution has resulted in a significant change in the way KEMSA receives monies for carrying out its activities. Of particular relevance is that the devolution has led to ordering and payment for drugs and health commodities by counties. This required KEMSA to reconfigure its business model to serve the 47 counties in Kenya as its customers. The World Bank, through its Health Sector Support Project (HSSP), capitalized KEMSA in order to meet working capital needs that would arise under the new devolved system of financing. Competitive pressures arising from devolution and the new business model, a new management structure with strong leadership and governance, technical support from development partners such as the World Bank and United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and greater flexibilities arising from KEMSAs change of status to a public authority together are converging to create a new KEMSA. It is an opportune time to study the state of reforms at KEMSA, highlight the successes, and develop ideas for meeting the challenges ahead. The ongoing transformation of KEMSA from a bureaucratic state-run medicines supply agency to a more independent and competitive medical logistics authority is an important milestone and it presents opportunities for other countries to learn from the successes and failures at KEMSA.
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Health experts and policymakers want people to have access to affordable and high-quality medical care. But in some developing countries, making quality healthcare available may first necessitate ensuring that essential medicines are available, such as anti-malaria pills and antibiotics.
... See More + The challenge to guaranteeing a steady supply is not only related to the financial side of paying for medicines. Poor roads, limited communications and storage problems can make it difficult to keep medical facilities stocked with what they need to provide children and adults with regular and lifesaving care. The World Bank is working to help countries provide quality medical care, a key part of many of the United Nations Millennium Development eight goals. Recently, in Zambia, the World Bank supported a project exploring how to guarantee the availability of essential medicines in often-remote health facilities. The 12-month study, which covered almost 22 percent of Zambia's rural population, found that streamlining the delivery of medicines directly to health centers and introducing a dedicated staff member to help facilitate and track orders cut down on the rate at which clinics ran out of basic medicines. The focus on just one aspect of good healthcare, making certain necessary supplies are in stock in medical clinics, does not answer all the questions that experts face in building or supporting functioning health systems. But it may help them as they work towards creating the quality healthcare that all people deserve. This Evidence to Policy note was jointly produced by the World Bank Group, the Strategic Impact Evaluation Fund (SIEF), and the British government's Department for International Development.
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