According to a study conducted by a team at Kenya Medical research Institute on ‘Community perceptions regarding the supply of essential medicines and medical commodities: early results and lessons learnt from universal health coverage pilot counties in Kenya’ among the health care service providers, there was consensus that essential medicines availability had improved under UHC. Majority of healthcare service providers reported that they had received sufficient supply of medical commodities including laboratory reagents. In some counties, reported receiving over 80% of their drugs consignment.
In some hard to reach areas especially in Isiolo County, many community participants noted that certain health facilities had not received adequate supply of drugs. In another county, a community member reported they were given prescriptions to go and purchase drugs from private chemists due to stock-outs.
One health service provider reported that arising from increased patient flows, some facilities experienced stock-outs due to patients from neighboring counties crossing over into the UHC pilot counties to seek for free healthcare services. A service provider reported that commodities like reagents for laboratory services were stretched. In some instances, a development partner reported that due to availability of medicines, clinicians prescribed second and third choice of drugs rather than the first line, and timely payments of outstanding bills.
This study employed an exploratory qualitative study design to collect information on various population perceptions regarding supply of essential medicines and medical commodities in their respective counties. Study sites included the 4 UHC pilot counties of Isiolo, Kisumu, Machakos and Nyeri.
This work was presented at the 2019 SPEED Symposium of Partnerships for systems developments in Kampala Uganda by James Kariuki. Watch the recording.
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