LAHORE - Minister Primary and Secondary Health Kh Imran Nazir inaugurated the supply of medicine to hepatitis patients through courier by delivering a parcel to a female patient in Shahdra on Wednesday.

The department will extend the scheme in phases to different health programs.

Talking to the media, Imran said that medicines would be delivered to 83,000 registered hepatitis patients at their doorsteps every month through TCS. The department would pay the delivery charges to the courier company, he added. The minister informed that an SMS would be sent at the mobile phone of the patient for monthly check up at nearby government hospital. This system would help eradicating the complaints regarding pilferage of costly medicines, he said, adding that data of patients and record of medicines’ delivery would be maintained online and third-party validation would also be carried out for transparency.

Imran further said that medicines of TB, AIDS etc would be delivered at doorstep of the registered patient through courier service in near future.

 FREE MEDICINES MUST REACH THE NEEDY

Minister for Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education Kh Salman Rafiq has said the process of procurement, supply and distribution of medicine and other health commodities in public sector hospitals of the province is being made standardised, comprehensive and effective.

“We are bringing a robust and transparent supply chain management system which will not only help eliminate the loss incurred due to expiry of medicines but also would ensure qualitative and quantitative needs of the end users,” Salman said while addressing a symposium at the University of Health Sciences (UHS) on Wednesday.

The symposium on the “Significance of Public Health Supply Chain Management” was organised by UHS in collaboration with USAID Global Health Supply Chain - Procurement and Supply Management (GHSC-PSM) programme. It was part of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the two organisations which was signed at the end of the symposium. According to this agreement, UHS and USAID Global Health Supply Chain Programme will collaborate to initiate diploma, short courses and Masters leading to PhD programme in Supply Chain Management. In the first phase, three-credit hour module of supply chain management has been incorporated in the Masters in Public Health Programme of the University.

Kh Salman Rafiq said that it is the top priority of the government to provide free-of-cost medicines worth billions of rupees to the patients in public sector hospitals every year and it is the prime responsibility of the authorities concerned to make the process of purchase, supply and distribution transparent.

 “Accountability has been brought in at all levels to ensure that the medicines purchased are reaching the needy,” he added.