Good supply chain central to functional PHCs —Health Minister

The Federal Government has said that it takes supply chain management at the PHC level seriously as it is critical to successful implementation of the revitalisation agenda of PHCs in the country.

Health Minister, Professor Isaac Adewole said this at the opening of the first National Supply Chain Integrated Project retreat in Abuja.

The minister said that access to essential medicines is critical to achieving universal health coverage and is also recognised as a key building block of a strong health system.

Adewole who remarked that medicines and health products are important for addressing health problems and improving quality of lives, added “this is why a virile and efficient Nigeria Supply Chain Integration Project (NSCIP) would be central to our success as we move towards actualisation of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) agenda in Nigeria.”

With the Global Fund forecasted to disburse about 1 billion USD to assist Nigeria to combat HIV, Malaria and TB over a period of 2015-2017, and about half going to consumables, the minister stated the need for innovative approaches to prevent the perennial challenges of commodity wastages, expiries and stock outs as well as poor delivery system to end users of such commodities.

He said that a year implementation of NSCIP had ensured gradual and steady improvement in coordination, stakeholder buy-in, and an increasing rate of resolving supply chain management challenges in 14 states it is currently operational.

With plans to scale up the project to other 23 states, he assured that the Federal Ministry of Health will implement all necessary reforms that to further improve on Nigeria’s fragile Supply Chain infrastructure.

The Minister said plan was also ongoing to expand logistic management coordination units to cover other health related programmes such as acute malnutrition and cancer chemotherapy.

According to him, “Our vision is to ensure that all states of the federation benefit from this initiative. The Federal Ministry of Health is conscious of her responsibility to ensure prudent and accountable system in the operations of our supply chain system that will meet international financial management standards and promote efficient project delivery.

“Let me assure our partners that the Federal Ministry of Health will implement all necessary reforms that will improve our warehousing and distribution system.

“For example, the NSCIP is on track to complete the network design for some disease programme in the country. We hope to achieve this very soon.

“We have developed and identified six zonal storage hubs. Of these, two are already being piloted under a public private partnership arrangement.”