Assessement of Acquisition Procedures for Medicines and Health Supplies from National Medical Stores by General and Regional Referal Health Facilities in Uganda.

Abstract

Introduction This study was to assess the acquisition procedure of medicines and related supplies by public health facilities from National Medical Stores. The specific objectives were: 1. To assess the health facility ordering practices in relation to their procurement plan in FY 2013/14. 2. To determine order fulfillment rate of NMS against order made by health facilities. 3. To analyze the level of adherence of NMS to the published delivery schedule. 4. To assess the level of NMS Customer satisfaction with its service delivery. Methodology A retrospective survey was used with both qualitative and quantitative data collected from NMS and health facilities. Qualitative data was collected from key respondents who were facility in-charges, pharmacy in-charges or stores assistants while quantitative data collected from records such as health facility procurement plans and orders, delivery notes and NMS delivery schedules,. Result The major findings were that RRHs ordered more medicines according to their procurement plans than GHs. Order fulfillment rate against orders made were highest at Mbale and Mityana hospitals and lowest at Abim. NMS adherence to the delivery schedule is at over 80 percent at RRHs and GHs. Level of NMS customer satisfaction with its services is over 80 percent. Recommendations MOH should train facilities in preparing procurement plans using Essential Medicines and health supplies list of Uganda and Uganda clinical guidelines. Thereafter, MOH should step up support supervision and mentoring to ensure all that facilities’ ordering practices are in relation to their procurement plans. NMS should improve its order fulfillment rate against orders by ensuring that all items ordered by facilities are served according to the orders. NMS should ensure that the level of adherence to its published delivery schedules is improved so that all orders are served by or before the delivery end date. NMS should hold regular meetings or dialogues with its customers and collectively come up with the best interventions for improving service delivery (and hence customer satisfaction) in health facilities. Further study should be done to establish other drivers of customer satisfaction than NMS adherence to delivery schedule and order fulfillment.