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The Catalytic Effect on Communities
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The ChallengeJust a few years ago in Guyana, essential medicines, HIV test kits, laboratory reagents, and other products were in high demand but in short supply. This shortage of commodities impaired the diagnosis and treatment of HIV/AIDS patients and underscored the need for a stronger health care supply chain to ensure the continuous availability of commodities. In 2006, Guyana’s Ministry of Health (MOH) enlisted the support of SCMS in opening a new warehouse annex, training staff members in warehouse management best practices, and implementing standard operating procedures. This initial effort has led to a nationwide transformation of the supply chain, not just for HIV/AIDS but forall public health challenges.
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Program Implementation New technologies and proven strategies have driven the creation of a reliable procurement, storage, and distribution system in Guyana. The country has adopted standard tools for forecasting and supply planning, thereby ensuring a common and robust approach to quantification. It has revolutionized its storage and management practices by deploying warehouse management system at the Materials Management Unit. It has also developed an electronic requisitioning and issue voucher system, linking major hospitals directly with the warehouse management system over the Internet and providing real time, consistently accurate reordering.
Today, Guyana’s health care supply chain is one of the most developed in the Caribbean.
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Results and Outcomes Today, Guyana’s health care supply chain is one of the most developed in the Caribbean. All public health indicators including life expectancy, child and maternal health and incidence of HIV infection have improved markedly in the least 7 years. Delegations from other countries visit Guyana to learn from its successes in improving public health, while private sector companies are incorporating lessons learned in transforming warehouse and distribution practices. In a country where aspirin was difficult to find not too long ago, surgeons now perform open heart surgery and kidney transplants, and doctors and nurses demand access to all kinds of medicines for their patients.
Each advancement in the supply chain has not only raised expectations; it has helped drive improvements in other areas outside the supply chain. For example, better commodity forecasting is helping to justify commodity expenditure and facilitating better outcomes during annual budget negotiations.
Helping to develop standard treatment guidelines to further improveforecasting also enables rational prescription of drugs, while better donorcoordination on supply chain issues can leverage funding for infrastructure.Advances in cold chain technology have led to a cold storage facility atGuyana’s national airport, which stores not only medicines for import butalso fruits and vegetables for export.Guyana’s success story challenges a common misperception that the pathway toimproving public health is entirely reliant on training more health workers. Adependable supply chain is not only critical in building healthy communities;it can drive improvements in other essential areas.building healthy communities; it can drive improvements in other essential areas.
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