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 Background
National
Medical Store (NMS) is an autonomous government Corporation
established by the National Medical Stores Statute no. 12 of
1993, which came into effect on 3rd December, 1993.
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Some of the Board Members of NMS
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Mission
Objectives
Advantages
Management |
Ministry of Health is responsible for the National Health policies in the country, the National Drug Policy
(NDP) inclusive. The major components of the NDP are:
- Regulatory control of Pharmaceuticals, which involve control/regulation of import, export, local manufacturing, marketing practices, distribution, use and registration of Pharmaceuticals.
- Promotion of local production, this includes investment incentives, transfer of technology, and associated taxes.
Supply of Drugs, which involves identification of therapeutic needs, selection of drugs, quantification of requirements, procurement of drugs, distribution and use.
Ministry of Health through the 1993 NMS statute delegated the drug supply function to National Medical Stores. Hence the formation of an autonomous institution NMS to replace the former Central Medical Stores (CMS) which was a department of the Ministry.
National Medical Stores is responsible is responsible ensuring continuous distribution of Pharmaceutical products in a financially viable and sustainable manner. In addition, NMS distributes drugs various and these currently include; Uganda Essential Drug Kits, STI drugs, Family Planning Products and Ministry of Health direct distributions to the Districts.
Mission Statement
"The mission of NMS is to ensure that the Ugandan population is efficiently provided with affordable good quality pharmaceuticals."
The objectives of National Medical Stores
The following are the principal objectives of the corporation:
- Efficient and economic procurement of medicines and certain other medical supplies of good quality primarily to the public health services.
- Secure safe and efficient storage, administration, distribution and supply of goods in question in accordance to the National Drug Policy and Authority.
- Establishment and maintenance of systems to ensure the quality of goods supplied.
- Estimation of current and future needs as a basis for procurement, planning and budgeting by the corporation itself and the Ministries concerned.
In fulfilling the above objectives, National Medical Stores has the following advantages as an autonomous centralized drug supplier:
- Cost effectiveness - Central procurement of essential drugs is the most cost-effective method for the public sector because the discounts attained through bulk procurement are translated into affordable prices to the end user.
Quality Assurance - Under central procurement there are fewer chances of importing sub standard drugs and in rare cases where they do, mechanisms have been put in place to ensure immediate recall.
- Financing - after the initial one-time capital investment the system became self-sustaining.
- Country coverage - The well developed facilities and bulk operations enable serving remote markets with limited commercial appeal.
- Credit facility - This is accorded to public sector institutions on a quarterly basis. However, this has been abused by accumulating debts for longer periods leading to the current high NMS indebtedness
- Product range - NMS offers the widest range of essential and vital drugs in one shopping centre.
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