E-DRUG: Inequity in funding allocation for essential medicines & health supplies Uganda
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Dear colleagues,
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) funded Management
Sciences for Health (MSH)-led Uganda Health Supply Chain (UHSC) program, in
collaboration with the Ministry of Health's Pharmacy Division, and Faculty
of Health Sciences, Department of International Health, University of
Copenhagen have contributed a research article on inequity in funding
allocation for essential medicines and health supplies in Uganda's public
sector to the BioMed Central Health Services Research Journal.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5006492/
An exploratory study was conducted to understand equity in financing for
essential medicines and health supplies (EMHS) in Uganda. It examined the
relationships among government funding allocations for EMHS, patient load,
and medicines availability across facilities at different levels of care.
It was found that EMHS funding allocations per patient varied widely within
facilities at the same level, and allocations per patient between levels
overlapped considerably. For example, Health Centre IV allocations per
patient ranged from US$0.25 to US$2.14 (1:9 ratio of lowest to highest
allocation), and over 75 % of HC IV facilities were in the lower average
allocation per patient. Overall, 43 % of all the facilities had optimal
stock levels, 27 % were understocked, and 30 % were overstocked.
The study presented evidence of inequity in EMHS allocations to public
sector health facilities in Uganda demonstrated by the wide range of
funding allocations per patient at all levels of care and the corresponding
disparities in medicines availability. It further showed that using patient
load as a basis of EMHS allocations in public health facilities could
improve equity in health care service delivery.
Reference
Kusemererwa D, [1]Alban A, Obua OT, Trap B (2016). An exploratory study on
equity in funding allocation for essential medicines and health supplies in
Uganda's public sector. BMC Health Serv Res. Aug 30; 16:453
[1] Ms. Dona Kusemererwa is currently the Executive Director for the
National Drug Authority (NDA)
Marlene Mouanga, CKM*
Knowledge Management Specialist*
Pharmaceuticals & Health Technologies Group
Management Sciences for Health
Arlington, VA 22203
E-mail: mmouanga@msh.org