Contemplating a Comprehensive Medicines Management Policy Framework for Tertiary Care Hospitals

Inefficient and irrational use of medicines is a widespread problem at all levels of health care throughout India. Lack of discretely documented policies and procedures in respect of medicines management in a hospital is unnecessarily straining the already meager resources resulting into poor inflow of benefits to the patients. Per capita wastage from inefficiencies and irrational use tends to be greatest in hospitals. Many of these sources of wastage could be reduced if some basic principles of drug management and use are followed and a proper drug management policy is developed for each hospital. The effectiveness of the medicines management system in a hospital depends on adherence to policies (broad, general statements of philosophy) and procedures (detailed guidelines for implementing policy). For this to happen evidence on current medicine management practices needs to be generated first followed by development of a robust policy framework that can then be translated into practice for efficient utilization of resources.

 

An effective medicines management system ensures the availability of the right drugs in the right quantities, at reasonable prices, and at recognizable standards of quality. Problems can often be encountered if medicines management in a hospital is carried out without such a systematic process, for instance the needed medicines may be out of stock, overstocks and wastage of resources besides purchase of low quality products. Most of the tertiary care hospitals of J&K state do not have any well documented medicines management policy and any policy and procedures manual to guide the usage and management of its medicines supply within the hospital quite often resulting in unorganized, unscientific and non-systematic selection, quantification, procurement, quality assurance, storage, distribution and use of medicines besides wastage of limited resources for medicines. Therefore there is need to design a comprehensive medicines management policy for tertiary care hospitals that would lay out a concrete policy framework for its drug selection, quantification, procurement, storage, distribution, dispensing and use. This would help these hospitals make the best use of their available resources for making quality medicines accessible and affordable to their patients. This paper aims at laying the foundation for design and development of a comprehensive medicines management policy framework for tertiary care hospitals of the region.