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The procurement and Supply of anti-malaria drugs in Public health facilities in Mainland
Tanzania though steadily progressive in its achievements, but is also not without
numerous challenges that could potentially undermine the hard earned achievements.
This calls for an exploration of the systems and processes of Public Health facilities
procurement in order to be able to ascertain some of these challenges and their probable
causes using the Dar es Salaam Ilala Municipality as a case study in order to build a
basis for any informed recommendations that would appropriately address the identified
challenges.
This particular study involves 250 sampled selected respondents from within
procurement staff from Ilala Municipal council and MSD, doctors, pharmacists and
nurses at health facilities (HF’s) in Ilala municipality, and some patients found at a
particular HF at a particular date. This study involved the legal and institutional
framework of public procurement of pharmaceuticals in Tanzania Mainland, the
mechanisms used and their effectiveness in the procurement and supply of anti-malaria
drugs, the challenges of procurement and supply of anti-malaria drugs in public health
facilities and lastly to determine the adequacy of the inventory management of antimalaria
drugs in health facilities. Established findings provided sufficient evidence
suggests that a lack of sufficient fund, poor quantification, inadequate knowledge of
inventory management amongst a majority of health personnel, poor ordering
mechanism, and a lack of a legal and institutional framework to guide and regulate
nationwide pharmaceuticals procurement have seriously undermined the procurement
processes and its objectives.
Some of the suggested recommendations, have ranged from the need for the Government
of the United Republic of Tanzania to set budget for the procurement of anti-malaria
drugs for the public health facilities rather than depending almost entirely on donors, the
need to ensure that a legal framework for the procurement and supply of
pharmaceuticals should be different from those used to procure non lifesaving products,
regular on-job training and short courses to the workers should be provided so as to have
health personnel who are capable in doing inventory management and quantification and
ensure effective and reliable data for procurement planning.
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