Agency holds its third pharmaceuticals supply chain annual conference
Ethiopian Pharmaceuticals Supply Agency held the third pharmaceutical supply chain conference from September 4-5, 2019 in Gondar city.
In his welcoming speech, Mayor of Gondar City Administration, Muluken Adane (Ph.D.) urged the Agency to forge ahead with efforts to solve problems, ensure its effectiveness and demonstrate its amity to the society.
Amir Aman (Ph.D.), Minister of Health, bore testament to the numerous improvements in the Agency citing the introduction of procurement package as an instance that drew the number of tenders floated every year from 110 to 45.
The Minister went on to remark that the auctioning process that took a year on average currently takes six months with the improvement leading to a pharmaceuticals supply surge from 59% to 90%.
The Minister further noted that the importance of the procurement package goes beyond reducing the number of tenders as it helps save 3 billion birr annually.
The Minister also announced that the Agency has established a system to get machines for free, purchase reagents and chemicals as well as receive maintenance service for its machines by making 3 years of placements to import laboratory reagents from major European and American companies.
Amir Aman (Ph.D.) also spoke of the modernization in the Agency’s activities by raising the use of CCTV cameras, GPS and installation of incinerators in eight towns across the country.
He noted that the installation of the incinerators is a huge relief to health institutions besides its role in saving foreign currency.
The Minister also stated that the Agency has supplied more than 51 cancer pharmaceuticals annually and congratulated the leadership, permanent committee, the board and partner organizations for their contributions in realizing these achievements.
Despite all these achievements, remarked the Minister, stock outs still persist. He noted that working closely with stakeholders is vital in the search for solutions to curb the challenge.
Following the deliberation on the annual report was an engaging panel discussion on four issues: improving product availability and customer satisfaction through improved communication and customer handling, improving collaboration for effective in-bound logistics, improving M&E through data use and data quality, and tracking fraud, theft and rent seeking behavior in supply chain.
Valuable inputs that would help improve work procedures along the four topics were obtained from the panel discussion.
The third supply chain conference was finally adjourned with treelings planting session and visit of the Gondar University General Specialized Hospital and Health station.
Participating at the discussion session were members of the House of People’s Representatives, stakeholders, local pharmaceuticals manufacturers, heads of regional health bureaus and other invited guests.