E-DRUG: Registering New Drugs for Low-Income Countries: The African
Challenge
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E-DRUG: Privatization of medical supplies in Sudan?
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Dear e-druggers,
The government of Sudan has appointed a committee to study the possibility of privatising the central medical supplies public corporation, the government agency responsible for procurement of medical supplies for public health facilities. The main goal is to increase its efficiency.
Being a member of such committee, I would like to know, if anyone of e-druggers has an idea or experienced such situation in his country or anywhere. The sharing of experiences would help us take the right decision.
Yours sincerely
Gamal Khalafalla Mohamed Ali PhD, MSc, PG Dip. (Health Econ.), B.Pharm (Hon)
Mobile +249912318615
Central Medical Supplies Public Corporation (CMS)
Director General
e-mail: gamalkh@cms.gov.sd
P.O. Box 11995
Khartoum
Sudan
E-DRUG: Privatization of medical supplies in Sudan? (2)
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Dear Gamal
The effectiveness and efficiency of the agency is to have an
autonomous corporate.
They have to lay down the following FRAMEWORKS:
1- Legal
2- Institutional and Governance
3- Human resource
4- Procurement process according to Acceptable International Good
Procurement Practices
5- Auditing and Anti-corruptions measures.
You have exmples of such agencies in many Nigerian states / Kano,
Jigawa, Kaduna, Ekiti.
As International lead SCM consultant I advice if you have a look at
the website of a Department in Jordan, the Joint Procurement
Department (WWW.jpd.gov.jo). It is a good example of an autonomous
agency tasked with the procurement of Drugs and medical consumable for
the whole Public sector in Jordan (MoH, Royal Med. Services, 2-
University Hospitals and NGO Hospital) with annual procurement volume
of about 120Mn US$.
I wish you success in the service of your patients.
You are welcome at any time to contact me any time.
e-mail: jafrehm@gmail.com
Mobile: +962 777 466 554
Best
Dr. Mahmoud Jafreh
Lead SCM International Consultant (Independent)
"Mah'd Al-Ja'freh" <jafrehm@gmail.com>
E-DRUG: Privatization of medical supplies in Sudan? (3)
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[An advantage is that if a private company does not perform according to the specified conditions, its contract can be terminated. Moderator]
Dear Dr G K Mohmed Ali,
I wish to share with you the Indian Experience in procuremnet of
medical supplies for public health care institutions ( hospitals).
The Formulary System is generally followed in most states for procurement
of medicines. It was in 1994, for the first time in India that one
state in India- Tamil Nadu started a state owned corporation ( Tamil Nadu
Medical Services Corporation- TNMSC) for the pooled procurment of
medicines, surgicals and other hospital item for the entire state owned
hospitals. TNMSC is fully owned by the state of Tamil Nadu. In the same
year Delhi, the Capital Territory of India also introduced a pooled
procuremnt system using the services of a non-governmental organisation
having experts in the field.
Now all most all Indian states are adopting the TNMSC model for the
procurement of medicines and other hospital requisites in
India. The trend in India is adopting the Tamil Nadu model of pooled
procurement and states are starting their own goverment corporations for
the medicine procurement.
Being a person who got the opportunity to be associated with the public
drug procurement program for over twenty years and also to supervise the
projects of certain PG and research students in pharmacy on public and
private medicine procuremnet systems in Indian states, I could critically
study the goverment medicine procurement process in most of the Indian
states.
I am of opinion that the idea of privatisation is a good idea. It is
good topic for deliberation and discussion .
If the privatisation is done with specific conditions, guidelines and
governance, it may help to solve certain issues like corruption, wastage,
pilferage, expiry related issues, stock outs of certain items and excess
stocks of others, etc. which are prevelant in government procurement
systems. There should be specific undertaking for scientific inventory
control, good warehousing, proper storate and related issues.
However there is no experience of privatization of goverment owned
medical corporations in India till date.
Dr. K G Revikumar
Principa & Dean
Amrita School of Pharmacy
Amrita University
Kochi, Kerala, INDIA. 682 041
kg.revikumar@gmail.com
E-DRUG: Privatization of medical supplies in Sudan? (4)
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I was interested to read this posting in which Mr Revikumar suggests that privatisation helps to reduce 'corruption, wastage, pilferage, expiries., stock outs etc.
I wonder if his views are underpinned by research as the above list of symptoms appear to be attribuable to poor management and weak systems rather than whether the operation is run by the public or private sector.
Kieran McGregor (freelance consultant)
Please add your profession and country
kieran mcgregor <kieran_mcgregor@yahoo.com>
[Moderator's additional comment: The symptoms above can be manifest in both public and private systems. However, in some cases a country's 'system' makes it impossible to discipline government managers. An independent company hired according to a specific and detailed contract can be fired if it does not perform according to the standards of the contract.]