The Challenge of Ensuring Adequate Stocks of Essential Drugs in Rural Health Clinics
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, suc...
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| Format: | Brief |
| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2012
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2010/11/13720570/challenge-ensuring-adequate-stocks-essential-drugs-rural-health-clinics http://hdl.handle.net/10986/10464 |
| Summary: | 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. 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. |
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