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The Kisumu government has launched an inventory management mobile system to boost efficiency in supply and prescription of medicine.
Health chief officer Dr Gregory Ganda said the innovation is aimed at eradicating drug expiration losses attributed to poor stock keeping.
He said prescriptions will be done through the platform called 'Maisha Meds' to facilitate proper keeping of records for all supplies in the 144 health facilities in the county.
“The facility managers will only stock what is enough to reduce cases of wastage and expiry based on the available data,” Ganda said.
He spoke on Tuesday during the Mama Grace Onyango Foundation for Digital Health in Africa Conference in Kisumu.
First Deputy Prime Minister of Uganda Rebecca Kadaga and Kisumu Deputy Governor Mathews Owili presided over the launch. They lauded the initiative, saying it will boost healthcare provision in the region.
Present were Grace Onyango, Great Lakes University vice chancellor Prof Hazel Mumbo, Prof Miriam Were, Prof Khama Rogo, former Senator Zipporah Kittony, and National Fund for the Disabled of Kenya chairperson Prof Julia Ojiambo and medic Prof Miriam Were.
Ganda, who is also the health executive nominee, said the end-to-end system will change the county’s health system in matters of procurement and supply of drugs in facilities.
He said it will help the county government have effective control of the consumption rate of various drugs and plan properly.
The medic said the county has in the past experienced a high expiration of drugs in Kisumu because facilities request more than they require.
He said last year the county government procured anti-rabies venom worth Sh10 million and not all were used and they expired.
“For instance, you find a health facility requests for 20,000 tablets and ends up using only 1,000 leaving the remaining 19,000 to expire, yet we have other facilities in the county that could have used the drugs,” Ganda said.
He said the initiative will outline all medicines procured by the county government to individuals to reduce wastage.
This, he said, will help the health department move away from the manual system where records are based on the number of patients treated.
“With the new system, when a patient is given say two tablets of a certain drug, the system automatically subtracts the same from the stock making it easy for us to know which medicine is required where,” Ganda said.
He said digital technology in health management is the best way to improve healthcare provision.
“We have put in place a robust infrastructure to leverage on technology to enhance access to quality medical care. The county has partnered with global instant logistics leader Zipline to supply drugs to health facilities in the area using drugs,” Ganda said.
He said the partnership targets to lower the cost of transportation of drugs as well as help reach facilities in far places in case of emergencies.
With the initiative in place, Ganda said the drugs that are not in use regularly will be stored in a pool at the firm’s warehouse in Chemelil, Muhoroni subcounty, from where they will be flown to a given facility when needed.
“The drugs such as anti-snake venom and anti-rabies venom, which are not constantly in use, will be stored in a pool and flown to a facility that is in need using drone technology,” Ganda said.
“This is part of the effort aimed at ending drug wastage through expiration as most of the drugs expire at the facilities before they are used,” he said.
Edited by A.N