National Medical Stores (NMS) has dispatched to government health facilities, the first consignment of Essential Medicines and Medical Supplies (EMHS) ordered for online, in what is a first for the country.
The digital platform, dubbed NMS Plus, is aimed at improving visibility, accountability and transparency in the ordering, tracking and delivery of medicines to public health facilities in the country. The maiden trucks carrying essential medicines ordered for online were dispatched to Moroto, Jinja, Mbale, Soroti regional referral hospitals; Kawolo, Buwenge, Kamuli, Masafu,Bududa, and Kayunga general hospitals, as well as to Bududa and Manafwa districts, among others. More dispatches are expected in the course of this month.
NMS Plus, replaces the traditional paper-based ordering of medicines by health facilities, which was by hand delivery and often-times slow and tedious.
While speaking during the flag off of the first dispatch at NMS Headquarters in Entebbe on friday, Mr Moses Kamabare, the NMS General Manager, noted that, “this is a historic moment for the health sector because with the new system, health facilities will now not only be able to save time, but also know what NMS has dispatched to them against what was ordered even before NMS trucks arrive in their respective facilities and districts. This is a departure from the past where health facilities would order for medicines on paper, they would have to wait until our trucks have arrived for them to confirm what we sent to them. It was a purely analog system’’
Kamabare said the new digital system gives power to the health facilities to receive or reject medicine and medical supplies that could have been damaged during transit.
“All the facilities have the consignment delivery report which shows what was ordered, delivered, accepted or rejected. The facilities are also able to calculate the order fill rates. In short the new system promotes accountability”, he said.
According to Mr. Stephen Kisuze, the NMS Chief ICT officer, the initial phase of the upgrade catered for National referral hospitals up to health Centre IVs.
“For the first phase, we have on boarded 278 health facilities; these include; National Referral Hospitals, National Institutes (such as heart institute, Blood Bank etc.), Regional Referral Hospitals, General Hospitals and Health Centre IVs. The second Phase will focus on Health center IIIs & IIs). For facilities with challenges in internet connectivity, Government through Ministry of health in collaboration with Ministry of ICT and National Information Technology Authority of Uganda (NITA-U) will provide connectivity to such facilities at no extra cost.’’
The third and final leg of the digitalization process will involve tracking all patients who receive medicines from health facilities in a bid to eliminate drug theft in what has been dubbed tracking the last mile. According to Kamabare, ‘‘the last leg of the digitization process will help us know how government medicines are being dispensed and to whom as there will be traceability of who has received these medicines.’’
NMS plus is a UgShs35 BN grant from USAID and is aimed at improving transparency of NMS activities, visibility of the entire supply chain of Medicines and Medical supplies of government and accountability to both the government and Ugandans.
