Forecasting, supply and distribution Six months performance evaluated

PFSA organized a workshop to evaluate the six months performance of forecasting, supply and distribution at Triangle Hotel of Dire Dawa town on February 13-14, 2018.

Admasu Teketel, Provisional Director of the Capacity Building and Procedural Reform Directorate, stated that the main aim of the workshop was to deliberate on the system of forecasting, purchasing, storage and distribution towards determining subsequent directions.

Admasu Teketel also reiterated that the agency is putting in place various procedures that would help improve the supply of pharmaceutical and medical inputs. He also spoke of the presence of a plan that would enable bridge capacity gaps in forecasting, supply and distribution, underscoring it would be implemented in line with the timeline set to it.

Yohannes Shiferaw, Provisional Director of Storage and Distribution Directorate, stated that they evaluated the status of expired and low distribution pharmaceuticals in the past six months. Efforts to relocate low distribution pharmaceuticals to branches where there is shortage have led to the use of 48 million birr worth of pharmaceuticals by those who need them.

Yohannes also pointed out that the rate of expired pharmaceuticals at branch level during the past six months stood at 1.1%. That figure, he analyzed, is close to the plan set to keep the rate down to less than 1%. Accordingly, he assessed the performance as good and expressed the need to work harder to get the numbers lower.

Problems of information keeping, especially the documentation system, and various quality problems in reports were deliberated upon during the workshop.

The major ideas put forth in the workshop are expected to be raised during the Agency’s six months performance evaluation platform.

Distribution, forecasting and laboratory coordinators and professionals along with some branch managers attended the workshop.