An 11-member committee mandated to help in the distribution of safe and quality drugs under the Ministry of Health’s Supply Chain Master Plan (SCMP) has been commissioned.
The members have also been tasked to develop and implement a well-co-ordinated plan, through the SCMP system, to provide the various healthcare centres across the country with quality, accessible drugs.
Committee’s mission
Speaking at the inauguration ceremony in Accra yesterday, the Director of Procurement and Supply at the Ministry of Health, Mr Samuel Boateng, explained that the committee was set up due to the concerns raised about the ministry’s inability to identify the strengths and limitations of its supply chain.
According to him, there are multiple agencies and entities involved in the SCMP with overlapping and duplicating roles which makes it difficult to achieve its set goals and objectives.
“The setting up of the Supply Chain Master Plan committee will help determine the gaps that have existed over the years in the distribution of drugs to the various healthcare centres across the country,” he said.
Pre-service training
Mr Boateng said universities such as the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and Central University College School of Pharmacy had integrated Supply Chain Management into their curriculum to ensure that their graduates were well-versed in it before working in the system.
Blueprint for MoH
In his address, the Deputy Minister of Health, Dr Victor Asare Bampoe, stated that the setting up of the SCMP committee was the blueprint required for the transformation in the public sector’s supply chain, especially at the MoH.
He also said the ministry was committed to ensuring that safe and quality drugs always reached their clients and customers when they needed them most.
“The SCMP system is designed to provide the right commodities in the right quantities and right conditions to the right place at the right time for the right cost,” Dr Bampoe said
