# \[e-drug\] Inequity in funding allocation for essential medicines & health supplies Uganda

**URL:** <https://talk.edrugplus.org/t/e-drug-inequity-in-funding-allocation-for-essential-medicines-health-supplies-uganda/43034>\
**Category:** e-drug\
**Created:** [September 13, 2016, 5:51am UTC](https://talk.edrugplus.org/t/e-drug-inequity-in-funding-allocation-for-essential-medicines-health-supplies-uganda/43034 "2016-09-13T05:51:03Z")\
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**Author:** ![Nandelenga\_Rachel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/898d66/32.png) [@Nandelenga\_Rachel](https://talk.edrugplus.org/u/Nandelenga_Rachel)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2016, 5:51am UTC](https://talk.edrugplus.org/t/e-drug-inequity-in-funding-allocation-for-essential-medicines-health-supplies-uganda/43034/1 "2016-09-13T05:51:03Z")

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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/](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