Access to essential medicines is a human right and a cornerstone of an effective primary health care system. Access to free essential medicines determines whether people live or die, suffer pain and discomfort or have their ailments cured, recover from illness or endure life-long disease.
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines essential medicines as “those that satisfy the priority health care needs of the population… Essential medicines are intended to be available within the context of functioning health systems at all times, in adequate amounts, in the appropriate dosage forms, with assured quality, and at a price the individual and the community can afford.” At the World Health Assembly in 1977, our governments made a commitment to ensure these essential medicines are available in public health facilities.
Yet today, over 30 years later, surveys conducted over the past four years show that essential medicines are not available in 32-50% of government health facilities in Uganda. These are medicines used to treat common diseases such as malaria, pneumonia, diarrhoea, HIV/AIDS, TB, diabetes and hypertension – all of which are among the highest causes of death in the country.
Stock-outs disproportionately affect the 9 million Ugandans who live on less than a dollar a day. To compound these problems, stock-outs force people in already dire circumstances to buy medicines at much higher prices from the private facilities. Due to these excessively high prices, patients are frequently forced to go without medicines needed to treat serious conditions that are otherwise treatable or preventable. Too often, stock-outs unnecessarily leave patients facing serious illness or death.
The “Stop the Stock-outs” campaign is calling on Uganda government, MoH and local government to end stock-outs now by:
Ensuring that there is sufficient funding for the medicines within minimum healthcare package•
Giving representation of civil society on the board of the National Medical Stores and at local government • level
Enhancing transparency in medicine procurement by districts•
Ending corruption in the medicine supply chain to stop theft and diversion of essential medicines•
Living up to commitments to spend 15% of the national budget on health•
Providing free essential medicines at all government health facilities•
The failure to properly stock government health facilities with essential medicines stems in part from budget constraints and bureaucracy. But above all, it is a failure of political will. If the Uganda government commits to having medicines in its health facilities, it can do it.
We also call upon international partners and civil society actors to support the availability of essential medicines in Uganda.
It is time to Stop Medicines Stock-outs; it is time to Ensure Access to Essential Medicines for All!
I pretty much totally agree with this. :P