THE Ministry of Health and Social Services yesterday launched the country’s second national medicine policy (NMP) – 24 years after launching its first.
Speaking on behalf of Kalumbi Shangula as health minister, Esther Muinjangue, Deputy Health Minister, stated that there have been significant developments in the health and pharmaceutical industries, both domestically, and internationally.
“Therefore, there was a need to revise the first NMP of 1998 to be more responsive to emerging health needs within communities, and to align objectives and strategies of the policy with current national strategic development plans,” Muinjangue said.
She stated that the policy document, which guides all activities at the strategic and operational levels of the pharmaceutical sector, has 11 strategic goals.
Muinjangue explained that these objectives cover the following pillars.
Muinjangue asked stakeholders to develop a roadmap for prioritised NMP strategy to address major challenges in the sector.
“ . . . Strengthening pharmaceutical regulatory capacity, improving procurement practices for health products, improving warehouse and distribution capacity at the central and regional medical shops, ensuring supply chain integrity and improving interoperability between health information and stock management tools across the supply chains and beyond . . “ she said.
Muinjangue stated that the launch of the second NMP signifies that the ministry has a comprehensive framework to guide its services in Namibia’s pharmacy sector. This includes training and research as well as regulation and quality assurance.
Ben Nangombe is the executive director for health and social services. He said that the policy should address the challenges facing the ministry.
“We have made some good progress over the years, but we still have some challenges. We must ensure stock accountability at all levels.
“We need to ensure we have an optimal standardised system to track and trace the medicine we receive,” he said.
He said that although the ministry has begun to do this to some degree with antiretroviral medications, there is still much to be done.
Source: namibian
