Introduction

  It is widely recognised that a well-functioning and efficient supply chain is critical for the provision of public health services and to guarantee the consistent availability of high-quality health products at all key delivery points. Identifying and eliminating constraints that hinder supply chain operations is considered one of the key steps towards reform in the provision of medicine and other health products. Over the past decade, many public health organisations and humanitarian aid agencies have developed programmes and projects to critically assess their operations and improve a range of aspects that affect the performance of their supply chains. .

   The Ethiopian Pharmaceuticals Supply Agency (EPSA) was established as a semi-autonomous public institution in 2007 to supply quality-assured and affordable pharmaceuticals to all public health facilities in Ethiopia. EPSA has contributed to the achievements that have been made in the health sector regarding the reduction of morbidity and mortality associated with both communicable and non-communicable diseases. Since its establishment EPSA has sought to build its capacity in terms of human resource and supply chain systems at all levels. As a result, EPSA’s capacity in procuring, storing and distributing pharmaceuticals through the Revolving Drug Fund (RDF) and other programmes has noticeably increased.

References

Citation

Citation: Pamela Steele., et al. “Evaluating Constraints and Prospects in Public Health Supply Chain: The Case of the Ethiopian Pharmaceutical Supply Agency (EPSA)". Acta Scientific Pharmaceutical Sciences 4.2 (2020):47-49.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 Pamela Steele., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.