All modern Governments, whatever may be their ideology, are committed to ensuring the health of their populations. As such, public health forms an important part of governmental activity and budgetary allocations.
As is well known, public health has many facets; there are for example, the maintenance of the hospitals, training and employment of doctors and nurses, the extension of health centres countrywide, and an ambulance service with ambulances equipped with personnel and facilities to run the emergency treatment of patients while on their way to hospital.
Though all facets are linked, there are some which are more important than others; and among the most important is the supply of drugs and medicines to the system. A health system without the adequate supplies of relevant drugs would be like an abandon house.
It is well known that the State is the largest drugs and medicine purchaser in the country and hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on doing purchases annually. For this reason it is very crucial that the most reliable, transparent and effective system is utilized to do same. From bitter experience, it was found that the value and service for public money expended were not achieved. The Government is fully aware that the State and tax payers would have better value for money if an objective methodology was employed for the acquisition of drugs.
The objective system employed worldwide in the procurement of drugs and medical supplies has rules designed to make it as fair and transparent as possible. The main features of the drug/ pharmaceutical procurement systems are a board of persons of integrity being appointed to be responsible for ensuring the system works; suppliers being invited to make bids in which price, quality, and other important factors such as storage and time of delivery are stated; all bids being opened at the same time so that no bidder will be disadvantaged and the evaluation of bids are done on certain accepted criteria. If the system worked as was intended, it will be fair, ideal and productive.
The failure to work the system has resulted in much embarrassment to the ministries involved and Government as a whole. Not so long after the APNU/AFC Government took office it came under severe fire over its handling of the drug procurement system; the drugs bond fiasco; the awarding of over $600M contract to an overseas supplier under questionable circumstances; the steady shortage of basic drugs at hospitals and health centres were just a few of the cases in which the Government faced criticisms.
It must be mentioned that the Government has a tender procedure whereby orders must be tendered for and those tendering must be reputable suppliers with proper cold storage facilities etc. This tendering procedure was established to protect Government and prevent public funds from being siphoned away. Based on information gathered, in quite a few cases, this tender procedure was generally ignored by those responsible.
The Government has promised to assiduously reorganized and repair with immediacy the system so that it will deliver an exceptional service to the public and benefit to the tax payers. The business community and the public at large anxiously await the reorganized procurement system that works fairly and efficiently in the interest of all citizens.
That said, drug security is as important as food security for every nation. The state could greatly assist in creating drug security for Guyana by buying locally through a transparent tender procedure. It could also assist in providing assistance to pharmaceutical companies to manufacture more drugs and medicines and purchasing them once they attain international standards. For example, one type of pharmaceutical that needs to be urgently manufactured locally is anti-biotics; indeed there can be no drug security in any country except there is an anti-biotics manufacturing facility.
In is hoped that in 2018 every effort will be made to continue revolutionizing Guyana’s health sector to ensure that the country attains drug security.
