New Delhi: IIT Madras and Krea University, Chennai have recently conducted a study that can help boost medical supply deliveries in four states, i.e, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Odisha, and Punjab.
As per the study conducted by IIT Madras and Krea University, four states can increase their medicine supply rate to 53 per cent from their average supply rate of 30.95 per cent. The study deals with issues that are identified in the existing medical supply delivery process.
The joint study was conducted under the guidance of Prof. R.P. Sundarraj from the Department of Management Studies at IIT Madras, and Prof. Vijaya C. Subramanian from the Department of Operations Management, IFMR-GSB, Krea University.
Following the study, the institute decided on the largest Indian states as their subjects, which include Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Odisha, and Punjab. Despite various challenges, the government can take several measures to speed up the existing drug supply in their respective states.
While talking about the need for study, Prof. R.P. Sundarraj, Department of Management Studies, IIT Madras, said, "Essential medicine is a key issue affecting health outcomes. This is especially an issue in low and middle-income countries”.
“The Indian government recognizes this and has enabled the import and production of APIs and KSMs for the manufacture of such medicines" he added.
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The key issues found in the State-level medicine procurement include capacity issues, batching of orders, penalties and blacklisting, transportation issues, and high inventory costs. The issues have been studied in-depth, and a reasonable solution has been presented for major states.
As per the study, the following recommendations has been made to the respective state governments in order to increase the medical supply delivery:
- In order to ensure timely delivery of medicines, State Government must consider staggering their orders and avoid batching.
- A graded manner must be included in the current processes of applying penalties and blacklisting suppliers.
- States must also consider adding a graded manner in the blacklisting suppliers.
- The study also empathizes on bringing out the importance of inter-state coordination.
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Even after applying the changes, there are still some shortcomings in the existing medicine delivery process. There are several factors that can be studied further, such as pricing issues, payment conditions, quality control benchmarks, essential drug list composition, etc.
As of now, the current model is facing instances of under-or over-filling of orders. Which is the further cause of delay in medicine supply deliveries.
While referring to the highlights of the study, Prof. Vijaya C. Subramanian, Krea University, said, "This work is an attempt to bridge the gap between research and policy”.
“The current pandemic has brought into focus the urgent need to address the deficiencies in healthcare delivery. We strongly believe that collaborations such as these between policymakers and researchers can contribute to immense improvements in the current system."
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