Thesis (MSc(Med)(Pharmacy))--University of Limpopo, 2012. / ABSTRACT
South Africa, 80% of the population is dependent on the
vernment to
provide for their health
care
needs,
mainly
ugh primary health care facilities. In the health objectives
of the National Drug Policy, the government of South Africa
outlines
its
commitment
to
ensuring
availability
and
accessibility of medicines which are effective, affordable, safe
and of good quality in all sectors of the health care system
( N a t ion a IDe par t men t of He a It h, 1 996) .
In
o rd e r
to
assess
the
availability
of
d ru g s
and
identify
ch a II en g e s w hi c h . ex is tin the Emf u Ie n i sub - d is t r i c t wi t hi nth e
Sedibeng
district,
a
questionnaire
was
administered
to
21
primary
health
care
facility
managers/store
managers,
fo u r
Community Health Centre managers and five transport officers
in the district.
In addition, a document review process was conducted to verify
aspects
of
th e
facility
managers'
and
store
managers'
responses. Bin cards and primary health care order files were
also
examined
in
conjunction
with
a
checklist to
establish
whether stock control systems were in place.
There was a 100% response with all primary health care centres
and
community
health
care
centres
completing
th e
questionnaires. It was established that drugs at primary and
community health care clinics were procured from the Sedibeng
district pharmacy.
In
each
of
these
clin ics
there
were
specific
individuals
responsible for medicine supply management. Only four primary
health
care
clinics
had
full-time
pharmacist
assistants
employed, and 14 clinics were visited by the assistants
on a
weekly/bi-weekly basis. There were no employees that have
received training in drug supply management in the last 12
months in 88% of the clinics interviewed.
Nineteen clinics claimed that the storage area was not large
e n 0 ugh to s tor e a II the s toe k f or a m 0 nth's sup ply and 0 n I yon e
clinic had a secure delivery area for their medication.
It was established that 24 facilities received stock by two
specific procedures namely; that the number of boxes
were
checked
and the driver's note was then
signed, and
stock
received was checked against the invoice. Of the interviewed
cl i nics,
20% admitted that the re-order level had
not been
calculated for all tracer items in the store.
Standard Operating Procedures, Standard Treatment Guidelines
and the Essential Drugs List were also not available at all
facilities. The results indicate inadequacies and weaknesses in
procurement, quantification, stock control, storage and record
keeping.
It clearly demonstrates that inadequately-trained staff was a
ma j 0 reo n t rib uti n g fa c tor to d rug s h 0 r tag e s. The r e was a I a c k 0 f
monitoring
and
evaluation
by
th e
district
pharmacy
as
pharmacists did not manage to visit all the clinics each month.
Most of the inadequacies and weaknesses can be addressed at
facility
level
with
pro per
supervision,
in-service
training,
mentoring and support of staff and the reinforcement of drug
supply management training.
Regular supervisory visits together with updating the monitoring
too I
in
terms
of
th e
problems
identified
will
improve
th e
management of drugs and ultimately decrease the number of out
of stocks where problems have been identified at primary health
care level.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ul/oai:ulspace.ul.ac.za:10386/683 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Tayob, Shamima |
| Contributors | Helberg, E. A., Bezuidenhout, S. |
| Publisher | University of Limpopo (Medunsa Campus) |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Relation | Adobe Acrobat Reader, version 6.0 |
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