E-drug: Storage of drugs matters (cont'd)
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[Thanks Abdullahi for your contribution below. I like your
methodological approach, with interventions in the regulatory and
educational field. A multi-facetted approach certainly offers more
hope for change than a single component intervention. What
worries me is that both education and regulation tend to have
limited impacts. People often know what they should do, but they
have reasons to do something else. In many countries we have
been training professionals for decades, but the impact is limited.
Appropriate legislation exists in many countries (how many allow
dispensing prescription drugs without a prescription?), but law
enforcement is often a dream, and will probably be for quite some
time. Apparently we have hardly any control over what happens in
the private sector. Cannot we come up with more creative ways to
make health and/or pharmaceutical professionals perform better?
What about emphasising quality of dispensing? What if we would
try to stimulate people to do the right thing, rather than having
them stop doing the wrong things? What about ways to make it
easier for people to avoid poor storage practices? What about
incentives to avoid expiry? Can anybody present examples of
alternative ways to solve problems? HH]
Hello E-druggers,
Appropriate drug storage is an important issue not only in
pharmaceutical management but in health care in general. The
problems are much greater in developing countries but not limited
to them. Also developed countries have some shortcomings in this
field. The problem has no easy solutions and should receive more
attention.
Many developing countries do not manufacture medicines so that
preserving well what is available in public or private medical stores
and in retail pharmacies is crucial. Moreover, human and financial
resources are limited in these countries and the best use should be
made of all available resources.
I see lack of knowledge/skills (of staff at storage facilities) and
deliberate malpractice (for greed or profit at any cost) as the main
factors that contribute to the problems of inappropriate/dangerous
storage of drugs. Furthermore, there is need for appropriate
measures to be introduced and implemented by national
administrations in order to overcome or reduce the problems.
I throw some thoughts and hope others may come in with
additional ones so that we can compile a list of steps that may be
taken to tackle the issue with simple but effective means. It is
especially important to know about practical experiences.
a) Measures by national administration:
- Limit the number of wholesalers or storage sites to a number that
allows regular inspections.
- Introduce clear and easy to understand regulations that are made
available at all storage sites.
- Make recommendations to be implemented by every facility after
each inspection and that should be in place at the following
inspection.
b) For lack of lack of knowledge/skills:
- Provide training followed by periodical courses to refresh
knowledge and reinforce good practice attitudes.
c) For deliberate malpractice
- Appropriate administrative and legal actions e.g.:
-
-
Please add to the list. Thanks.
Abdullahi Elmi
Coordinator
Somali Group for Rational Use of Drugs (SGRUD)
Mogadishu (Somalia) - Toronto (Canada)
e-mail: Somali_drugs@yahoo.com
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