This foundation level course is based on the 6 + 1 rights of a health supply chain: the right goods, the right quantity, the right cost, the right quality, the right place, the right time, and the right interventions, and is aligned with the 12 WHO interventions around rational drug use.
The course is available as a class-room course or as a self-paced e-learning course.
The success of a health programme depends on a reliable supply of essential medicines and other health products, to the health facilities. However, an organisation’s capability to select, forecast, procure, and deliver essential health supplies can be a major constraint.
Supply chain excellence requires that all of the functions of the supply chain work together efficiently. For example, decisions about product selection must inform decisions about distribution modes, frequency of delivery, and storage specification. Similarly, rational use of pharmaceuticals is critical for accurate quantification – which, in turn, affects procurement planning.
The supply chain strategy must consider these interactions and the associated trade-offs between alternative approaches.
Download the course overview.
Highlights and Testimony
Who should attend?
This course is for those who are responsible for planning, procuring, distributing or monitoring health programme supplies. It is especially useful to those with a health professional background who have taken on responsibility within the health supply chain.
Specific positions include procurement officers, pharmacy managers, warehouse or distribution managers, health programme managers, information systems managers, staff of central medical stores, technical assistance providers and donors supporting commodity programmes.
Course Objective
The course objective is to increase participants’ understanding of procurement and logistics management within a health supply chain so they can make improvements in their organisation’s health supply chain based on their area of influence.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, participants will be able to
- describe the interrelated components of an end-to-end health supply chain from the perspective of a rights-based approach;
- identify the critical cross-cutting elements that need to be in place to ensure a sustainable and well-functioning health supply chain;
- understand the issues experienced by supply chain personnel from other countries and organisations, and use these to reflect on their own circumstances; and
- make improvements in their own health supply chain based on their area of influence.
Course Content
Day 1
Introduction
- Health supply chain management, the key supply chain functions, and stakeholders, in the context of the 6 + 1 rights of supply chain
- The difference between ‘access’ to and ‘availability’ of essential medicines
- Consequences of broken health supply chains
- Attributes of well-functioning health supply chains
Day 2
Right Interventions
- The policy and procedural framework for effective health supply chains
- The rational use of medicines
Right Products
- The role of essential medicines lists
- Resources to assist in a medical devices needs assessment
- Effective donation policies and barriers to effective implementation
Right Quantity
- Quantification, and associated key activities
- Quantification methods to determine requirements
- Linking quantification to subsequent health supply chain management activities
- VEN analysis to optimise the use of limited financial resources
- How emergency situations may change procurement approaches
Day 3
Right Quality
- The differences between quality assurance and quality control
- Quality assurance activities in the procurement cycle
- Counterfeit and sub-standard medicines, and avoiding their entry into the marketplace
- Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to monitor performance
Right Cost
- The guiding principles of public procurement
- Procurement activities from requirement definition to supplier performance management
- Procurement planning in an integrated supply chain
Day 4
Right Place, Right Time
- Components of a logistics and inventory management system
- Logistics and inventory management activities
- Key elements of cold chain management
- Key principles to ensure appropriate storage of health commodities
- Common downstream logistics and inventory management challenges
- Reverse logistics and how it should be operationalised
Day 5
Cross-cutting themes (classroom course only)
- Supply chain design and the concepts of integration, segmentation and vertical supply chains
- Risk management
- Performance monitoring and evaluation activities
- Key human resources activities
- Innovative approaches to integrate the supply chain
Registration
Registration costs $1,000 USD per person, tax inc. The registration fee covers five days’ training with an expert facilitator in a hotel venue; high-quality training materials and stationery; morning and afternoon refreshments; and daily lunches. Transport and accommodation are NOT included.
The self-paced e-learning course is available for $300, tax inc.
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