Lack of Essential Medicines A Serious Health Problem

The Minister of Health, Major (Rtd), Courage Quashigah has said lack of access to essential medicines is a serious public health problem and also reduces the general confidence of patients and health workers in the health care delivery system.

Access to medicine includes availability and affordability, which are influenced by a number of related factors such as rational selection and use, pricing, financing and supply systems.

He said for Ghana to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and the government's healthcare agenda, it is important to ensure that all people living in the country have ready access to good quality, affordable and efficacious medicine which is safely and rationally used.

Major Quashigah said there is an urgent need to improve access to good quality essential drugs in the country; one of the options for achieving this is to equip licensed chemical sellers with appropriate knowledge, skills and support so as to enable them to play their part in bringing safe, humane, affordable, effective and accessible services to the market within the laws that govern such operations.

Speaking at the consultative meeting of stakeholders in the industry on the theme of "Enhancing access to medicine" the Deputy Minister of Health who read the Minister's speech said "This is the goal of the Ministry of Health's Ghana National Drugs Programme, the programme, which currently drives pharmaceutical sector development within the country".

Major Quashigah said there is no gainsaying that the delivery of quality healthcare requires true partnerships. When the key healthcare professions work in collaboration instead of along parallel tracks, the patient and health care system benefit, he emphasized.

He said, "This would require the development of the appropriate team spirit among all key players in the field having the requisite linkages and lines of communication which allows the free flow of information in a healthcare system that is accessible to the community and ensures that each patient is treated safely and cost-effectively in a humane manner".

Unfortunately, he said, the situation on the ground is very different. Petty jealousies and love-hate type relationships exist between various groups of health professionals with some claiming to be more important than others. "There is so much 'turf protection' and mistrust".

He said the consequences of this unfortunate situation are that patients do not get humane, compassionate and dignified treatment from health professionals, abuse of patients' rights by some health professionals and high cost of healthcare delivery rendering service inaccessible to many poor and illiterate patients.

Not all chemical sellers, the Minister said, are operating within the law. Some of them engage in unethical practices. Some of them do not attend training and other programmes organized by the Pharmacy Council and other stakeholders designed to enhance their knowledge and skills that will enable them to provide safe and acceptable services to their clients.
Others he said abandon their shops, leaving them in the hands of attendants who have not received any training whatsoever in the proper handling of medicines. "We can all imagine the disastrous consequences that ensue"; "Medicines are not peanuts that can be sold just anyhow", he stressed.

He said for medical sellers to be able to perform their tasks efficiently, they need appropriate entrepreneurial skills, skills in rational use of drugs, skills in managing simple illnesses of common occurrence in their community and reliable source of good quality and affordable medicines.

He tasked the Food and Drugs Board and the Pharmacy Council to work together in taking a fresh look at the medicines they are allowed to handle as well as the regulations and procedures that govern their operations.

source:allafrica.com