Medical shortages expected to be remedied with LMIS Manual

The Logistics Management Information System (LMIS) Manual was on Monday received by the Public Health Ministry, at the Ministry’s Brickdam office in Georgetown, to aid and expand the understanding of laypersons within the (health) sector while facilitating further consistent scientific forecasting by

professionals.

This development of the manual was made possible owing to the support of the Supply Chain Management System (SCMS) and through funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

The guidebooks will be distributed shortly to all public health facilities across Guyana according to the Health Minister who believes every person should have access to the handbook.

USAID Country Director, Caroline Healey, stated that the document will assist in ending medication stock-outs, expiration of medicines while ensuring that drugs and medical supplies are accessible by the recipients at the right time, at the right place, at the right quality and at the right price.

Healey communicated the Agency’s eagerness to support the reinforcement of the health-supply chain from the Health Ministry to all 10 regions across the country. Deeming the manual a “tool kit” for health sector employees, the director of USAID is confident that successful execution and compliance with the document’s guidelines will help eliminate the systemic difficulties plaguing the health sector at present.

Meanwhile, Director of Regional Health Services (RHS), Dr Kay Shako, spoke to the gathering briefly during which she stated that the handbook will assist health care providers and allow the citizenry an eye into the workings of the public health system, therefore enabling them to recognise and comprehend the prevalent challenges faced within the sector.

“It will help underscore the reasons for shortages… not just perception but reality. It is enriched with information sufficient to coerce us to unlearn previous misconceptions about the supply chain management system, and adopt a new approach through an educated and informed position,” Shako held.

Speaking on the issue of “stock-outs”, the doctor posited that healthcare providers within the primary care system play a pivotal role in how medicines and medical supplies should be managed from the time of arrival to the health facilities to the time they are dispensed to patients. This system, according to Shako (in the manual’s forward), is designed to guarantee that usage is monitored and to help inform decisions when (and how much) drugs and medical supplies should be ordered to which in turn enables health care providers to know precisely how to comply with LMIS to ensure adequate, efficient and effective supply of medicines and medical supplies at all health care facilities.

The manual further outlines the procedures to be followed by healthcare providers when reordering, receiving, storing, distributing or dispensing health products within the public health supply chain.

Dr Shako further believes that the manual is beneficial to all in that after reading same, one’s knowledge and understanding of the drivers of medicine and medical supplies shortages will be broadened. She also urged local healthcare providers to understand how critical it is to maintain the basic structure at every health facility in Guyana. The doctor further expressed her concern in light of several situations where persons are told that they cannot be treated at a particular health facility because there are no medicines.