M-Supply should fix shortage of medicines and blood reagents – Dr Tudravu

Permanent Secretary for Health Dr Jemesa Tudravu says their new management system called M-Supply, which they rolled out last December should be able to fix the issues of shortage of medicines and blood reagents.

This is after serious concerns were raised by Fiji Medical Association President Dr Alipate Vakamocea on fijivillage Straight Talk with Vijay Narayan where he said out-of-stock drugs means delay in care, meaning that somebody is not receiving the ideal care, and that could cause issues, and this will continue with the current system in place where the Ministry of Health has to get three quotes for medicine when they run out.

Dr Vakamocea says regarding no reagent availability, a complete blood count is often part of a routine checkup, and it is also used to monitor a condition or treatment that may affect your blood cell counts such as infections, anemia, immune system disorders, and blood cancers.

Doctor Vakamocea says this is affecting services as the doctors will not be able to correctly diagnose anyone.

Dr Tudravu acknowledges that they have had incidents where they have had shortages of medicines and consumables in their hospitals adding that the Fiji Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Services Centre is their main procurement agent for the Ministry of Health, and works with the Fiji Procurement Office for the purchase of medicines and consumables that they use in the Ministry of Health.

He says one of the things that they have done in recent years is to implement a new inventory management system called M-Supply.

The Permanent Secretary says their new inventory management system, has now been rolled out to all their health facilities, which allows them to order supplies and also update their stock, but it also allows them to be able to redeploy supplies from one facility that may have a surplus to a facility that has no one.

He says that system is starting to show an impact in terms of improving their out-of-stock medicines and supplies.

Dr Tudravu says they are not completely over it yet, but with continued use of the system, they will be able to improve the status of availability of medicines and supplies at their various health facilities.

He says the ideal arrangement would be for them to have their own supplies of reagents and do their own testing.