The Ministry of Health (MoH) has initiated an agreement with some selected pharmaceutical companies for the supply of essential medicines under a framework contract.
By this agreement, health facilities under the ministry will be able to purchase essential medicines at the same negotiated price for a period of time despite changes in market prices.
This form of repeated purchasing module is envisaged to save time and money, as well as ensure availability of essential medicines at health facilities at all times because it has a faster processing time and prices and terms have been settled in advance.
Signing the agreement on behalf of government, Health Minister Kwaku Agyeman-Manu explained that the contract, the first of its kind in the country, forms part of government’s effort to improve efficiency in the entire health sector medicine supply chain.
He said the coming of the new purchasing module is one of the positive fall-outs of the destruction of the country’s medical stores that housed essential medicines and other health equipment for the nation.
The sector minister added that with the new agreement which was initiated in October last year, government health facilities will have a better procurement process as efficiency and timely delivery of the medicines will be improved.
“The ministry has completed the tendering process and subsequently received the central tender review committee approval for award of contract for the supply of various essential medicines under a framework contract by sixteen shortlisted vendors,” he said.
Mr Agyeman-Manu pointed out that the framework contract will act as a catalyst to support the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to be sustainable, indirectly as hospitals will have the same cost for essential medicines.
He, therefore, directed government health facilities to exclude the 54 essential medicines from any procurement process to be undertaken by them.
The agreement is expected to be operationalised prior to the signing of contract agreements between the various procuring entities and the identified vendors.
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