Managers’ Perceptions of the Availability of Medicines in the Free State District Health Services

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore and to describe perceptions of pharmaceutical service managers and district managers regarding factors influencing the availability of medicines within the district health services of the Free State province. A qualitative, descriptive, exploratory and contextual research design was followed. Data collection was conducted through two focus group discussions consisting of pharmaceutical managers and district health services managers, respectively. The collected data were organised and analysed by means of an inductive model where the data that were relevant to the topic had to be grouped into appropriate and meaningful categories. This was enhanced by the use of XSight, a software package developed for the analysis of qualitative data. The research results demonstrate that there is inadequate availability of medicine in district health services due to various factors, including a shortage of pharmacists and pharmacist assistants in the primary health setting, lack of delegation, red tape in the procurement of medicines, and lack of an electronic medicine procurement and monitoring system. The study made recommendations on how to improve medicine availability within the district health services.