Health department unveils stock management system app
MEDICATION stock-outs could be a thing of the past if new stock management and reporting systems that the national department of health is introducing is successful.
During the delivery of his budget vote in Parliament this week, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said as part of addressing drug stock-outs in provinces across the country, the department was rolling out various programmes to manage the situation better.
One such programme is a stock visibility system known as SVS, which has been introduced in primary healthcare clinics. The stock management system mobile application would allow healthcare workers to keep track of available medicines in each facility by scanning medicine barcodes, and entering the stock levels for essential drugs including antiretrovirals (ARVs), tuberculosis drugs and vaccines.
Motsoaledi said the web-based app, which availed information on drugs, including their location in real-time, had since been introduced in almost 2000 facilities, or 60percent of the country’s clinics. The department was hoping to rollout the programme at all clinics in the country in three months.
The system would allow the reporting of medicine availability into the national medicine surveillance centre.
But the Western Cape has since rejected the new innovation opting to keep its existing stock management system.
Mark van der Heever, spokesman for the department, said the province has indicated to the national government that it would keep its province-based programme as it was effective in monitoring of stockouts.
“With regard to the SVS, we have indicated to the national department that the Western Cape has had an existing, effective, system in place for many years, which performs the same function as what they proposed. One needs to consider this generates an enormous amount of data and adds significantly to workload of the staff at facilities,” he said.
The national department’s deputy director-general for health regulation and compliance, Anban Pillay. conceded that the Western Cape has been left out of the system as its stock-outs were relatively low.
“At the moment we are not worried about the Western Cape not joining in because they have done very well in managing their medicine stocks. We are currently focusing on other provinces that didn’t have any drug monitoring system in place,” he said.
Pillay has, however, warned the province would have to ensure that its system directly communicated or linked to the national surveillance centre in Pretoria, or it could be forced to adopt the new system if this couldn’t be achieved.
Van der Heever said the Medsas depot system – which was first introduced to Groote Schuur, Tygerberg and Red Cross hospitals 17 years ago and rolled out to other facilities in 2007 – “gives us absolute stock visibility across facilities in the province at any time”.
The Western Cape was, however, part of the Primary Health Care Guideline app – a programme that was used to distribute standard treatment guidelines, known as STGs.
Having been launched in November, the app not only allows healthcare workers to report stock-outs of essential drugs, but it also allows ordinary people to report these stock-outs directly to the national Department of Health.
Motsoaledi said the app, which had since been downloaded 15000 times, would mean that healthcare workers experiencing medicine shortages won’t have to put up with hospital managers – who may well be responsible for the stock-outs – but will direct them to the head office.
“What is brilliant about the system is that it is not only doctors and nurses who may use it. Even patients and member of the public can download it and use it. You can even inform us about the side effects of any medication you are on,” said Motsoaledi.
Van der Heever said the province was “in support” of this app, and “the department has made significant contribution to the standard treatment guidelines embedded in the app and our staff are using it daily”.