Abstract
IntroductionThe supply of essential medicines is one of the vital components of primary health care. One of the important objectives of Indian health policy is to provide all the essential medicines at an affordable cost for the public. The performance of healthcare facilities is directly affected by the supply of essential medicines. This study was conducted to check the availability of key essential medicines in selected public healthcare facilities of the South Indian Union Territory.MethodsA snapshot survey was conducted between March 2019 and February 2020 in 10 selected public health facilities to assess the availability of 50 key essential medicines. Percentage availability for all surveyed medicines for the individual facility as well as percentage availability of individual medicines in all surveyed health facilities was calculated.ResultsPercentage availability of 50 key essential medicines in 10 surveyed public health facilities was found in a range of 66 to 80%. Out of 50 medicines, 26 (52%) medicines were available in more than 80% of health facilities while six (12%) medicines were available in less than 30% of surveyed facilities.ConclusionThis study reported the high availability of essential medicines in public health facilities as compared to similar studies done in other parts of India but the availability of some essential medicines was found sub-optimal and needs to be improved.
Highlights
The supply of essential medicines is one of the vital components of primary health care
Percentage availability of 50 key essential medicines in 10 surveyed public health facilities was found in a range of 66 to 80%
World Health Organization (WHO)/HAI has set criteria of 80% for medicine availability as high [18,19] against which we reported in our survey that overall median percentage availability in 10 selected public health facilities was 76% which was slightly lower than the benchmark set up by WHO and HAI
Summary
The supply of essential medicines is one of the vital components of primary health care. One of the important objectives of Indian health policy is to provide all the essential medicines at an affordable cost for the public. The performance of healthcare facilities is directly affected by the supply of essential medicines.
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