Sindh is the first province in Pakistan to introduce a web-based health logistics information system (HLMIS) that can be used to measure drug stocks in government hospitals - from GPs to teaching hospitals - in all districts.
The system allows administrations of all state hospitals, district offices, health boards and secretaries and ministers of the relevant departments to view records of all medicines collected online, especially those for maternal and child health care and important pharmaceutical supplies, and consumption and status of the remaining credit
"The system allows ministry officials to see how many drugs are left in all hospitals, and any hospital that has no drugs can visit the site and then collect the needed drug from the nearby health facility," an official told the Ministry of Health to the Press media.
Ministry of Health officials said all this was possible with financial and technical support from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and that the system was developed using Chemonics, a United States-based international development consultancy working with the United States International Development Agency and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
"This system has been successfully used in all districts of the province," said Dr. Irshad Ahmed Memon, Director General of Sindh Health Service. "This not only ensures transparency of drug use, but we also immediately notice the shortage of drugs."
Dr. Tanweer Hussain, who works with Chemonic, also said that all district investigators (DHOs) and medical superintendents from government hospitals would upload all information on the Internet and update their online inventory at each transition shortly after receiving medication.
"The advanced system is already successfully used in five Punjab districts, but here in Sindh it is being implemented in all 29 districts," he said.
UNICEF health specialist Andrey Tulisov said the system would play an important role in enabling the health agency to improve the responsiveness of its supply chain, lower costs and meet the demand for better healthcare through informed decisions.
