E-DRUG: Articles Uganda medicines management in Journal of Pharm. Policy & Practice
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The US Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded Uganda Health
Supply Chain (UHSC) program, in collaboration with the Uganda Ministry of
Health's Pharmacy Division and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, have
contributed two articles to the *Journal of Pharmaceutical Policy and
Practice.* The two studies that were recently published describe and
demonstrate the importance of capacity building to improve medicines
management.
http://joppp.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40545-016-0070-x
https://joppp.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40545-016-0068-4
The first paper in a series, describes the components of Supervision
Performance Assessment and Recognition Strategy (SPARS), an innovative
multipronged intervention strategy to improve medicines management in
Uganda, and reports on the medicines management situation in Uganda before
its introduction.
The overall median medicines management score at baseline
was 10.3 out of a maximum of 25. It was found that government facilities
scored low in dispensing and storage but higher in ordering and reporting,
while hospitals, in general, scored higher overall, in other areas than
prescribing and stock management.
Since its inception, Uganda's National Drug Authority (NDA) has regularly
inspected private sector pharmacies to monitor adherence to Good Pharmacy
Practices (GPP). The second paper reports findings from the first
regulatory inspections, measuring adherence to GPP in the public sector in
Uganda, comparing performance between SPARS and non-SPARS facilities. It
found only 57 percent of the health facilities met certification criteria
due to insufficient GPP implementation in both government and private
not-for-profit health facilities. However, SPARS facilities failed fewer
indicators compared to non-SPARS facilities.
Both studies emphasize the role of capacity building programs such as SPARS
and strengthening regulatory inspection for GPP, in addition to general
infrastructure development towards better medicines management and
equitable access to medicines.
References
Trap et al., (2016). Article 1: *Supervision, Performance Assessment, and
Recognition Strategy (SPARS) - a multipronged intervention strategy for
strengthening medicines management in Uganda: method presentation and
facility performance at baseline Journal of Pharmaceutical Policy and
Practices, 9:21
http://joppp.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40545-016-0070-x
Trap et al., (2016). First regulatory inspections measuring adherence to
Good Pharmacy Practices in the public sector in Uganda: a cross-sectional
comparison of performance between supervised and unsupervised
facilities. Journal of Pharmaceutical Policy and Practices, 9:18
https://joppp.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40545-016-0068-4
Rachel Nandelenga
Communications Manager
Management Sciences for Health
Uganda-Kampala Uganda
Direct: +256706869956
E-mail: rnandelenga@msh.org