By Yvonne Atilego
The Ministry of Health has launched the Ghana Global Standard 1 project GS1 which will help trace substandard and falsified medicines detected during the supply chain. It will also help address risks associated with patient safety in medicine administration, and reduce the financial burden on the National Health Insurance. The Minister of Health Kwaku Agyemang Manu launched the project in Accra.
The issue of sub standard and falsified medical products has been a concern the Ministry has been grappling with over the years as it has far reaching consequences on consumers.
In 2018, the Ministry of Health (MOH) on behalf of the Government of Ghana, began an initiative to roll out an integrated Ghana Logistics Management Information System (GhiLMIS). With support from the USAID funded Global Health Supply Chain and Procurement and Supply Management Project. (GHSC-PSM) which has the capabilities to ensure the transparent flow of Health Commodities from the Central Warehouse to the RMs and to follow its up to the lower facilities.
The aim is to ensure availability, accessibility and affordability of medicines to the populace.
A key component of this initiative is to develop a standardized master data framework for all relevant products in the Ghana Health Supply Value Chain.
The Ministry is adopting some of the best practices in the world namely the Global Standard 1 (GS1) initiative, as part of its supply chain reforms. This Standard has the added capability to identify, capture and exchange product information among all entities within the supply chain.
The adoption of the Ghana Global Standard 1 project will be beneficial in tracing substandard and falsified medicines detected in the legitimate supply chain.
It would also help to address the risks associated with patient safety in medicine administration, thereby reducing the financial burden on the National Health Insurance.