National Medical Stores (NMS) has the responsibility of delivering pharmaceuticals and medical supplies to over 70 district health offices and hospitals spread throughout the nation.  Mountainous terrain throughout the country, the fact that some health facilities are located on islands and the poor condition of roads all serve to complicate the distribution operation. Add to this the disproportionately high cost of fuel and the limited resources of the government’s health budget and the need for efficient transport management becomes clear.

Transaid's role

Transaid were invited by National Medical Stores of Uganda to undertake an assessment of their transport and distribution function in order to provide a series of recommendations as to how they could reduce costs, increase efficiency and improve service delivery.

The Process

Firstly Transaid executed an operational assessment using a process refined over many years during Transaid’s past transport management projects in Ghana, Kenya South Africa and Zambia. The assessment focuses on the key areas of policy, operations management, fleet management, management information and human resource – assessing the strength of the organisation in each component, analysing competencies and evaluating areas for improvement.

Secondly Transaid conducted interviews with key transport staff including considerable time with the Transport and Logistics Officer responsible for the distribution function. These interviews allowed Transaid to get an understanding of the key processes within NMS and how these processes such as inventory management integrated with the distribution operation.

Thirdly Transaid spent time observing and documenting a variety of processes including vehicle loading at the national distribution centre and subsequent unloading at the district health office; specific tasks which had been identified as causing delays to the distribution operation. This process included physically accompanying one of the delivery trucks as it was loaded then travelled by ferry to the island of Kalangala where it made an evening delivery at the district health office.

Partners

Transaid was invited to undertake this work by the National Medical Stores of Uganda. National Medical Stores is the government agency responsible for procurement, storage and distribution of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies.

Results

The result of the operational assessment was the development of a report detailing recommendations for improvement of the existing NMS distribution operation. The recommendations include suggestions for an appropriate policy and system implementation, resolution of organisational process issues which had been adversely affecting the transport operation and the subsequent execution of an outsourcing study to determine an effective solution for ongoing expansion of the delivery network.

With the adoption of these recommendations NMS will be expected to benefit from reduced transport costs, increased vehicle utilisation allowing a reduction in fleet size, improved vehicle availability allowing a faster response to vehicle demand, and overall improved service delivery. At present the tasks of managing the day to day transport operation are taking considerable time – with the implementation of appropriate processes and systems this work will be greatly reduced freeing the Transport and Logistics Officer to concentrate on upcoming projects to increase the distribution network which NMS services.

The Impact

National Medical Stores has long had an intention to distribute medical supplies beyond the existing network and instead of ending the supply chain at district health offices (as is now the case) to continue and distribute directly to the hundreds of health centres throughout Uganda. Through the interventions recommended by Transaid NMS will be able to achieve optimum transport efficiency thus releasing previously committed resources for purposes of extending the delivery supply chain.

The impact of this upon the rural inhabitants of Uganda is immeasurable; the introduction of a reliable and convenient supply of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies direct from the National Stores rather than relying on the sometimes limited transport resources available at the District Health Centres.