Drug Management, ensuring optimal treatment for the patient (ENG)

This is the main part of the training film, there are 7 accompanying annexes.
The management of drugs and medical supplies is a crucial part of every MSF program. The objective is to ensure that patients have access to quality treatment when and where required. In order to achieve this, MSF checks every stage within the supply chain, from drug sourcing all the way through to the dispensing of drugs to patients.

MSF187843

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Drug Management. Ensuring optimal treatment for the patient (ENG & FR)

Le Médicament - Annexe 7 Outils indispensables (FR)

Le Médicament - Annexe 3 Organisation d'une pharmacie (FR)

Le Médicament - Annexe 2 Observance (FR)

Le Médicament - Annexe 1, la chaine de froid (FR)

Le Médicament, une chaîne essentielle pour le patient (FR)

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Unique Identifier Code / URN MSF187843

Date taken / Date Recorded 01/01/2005 12:00 AM

Country France, Liberia

Commissioning section MSF-FRANCE

Formal Consent Copy available no

Editor's rating ★★★ (F)

Video format h264 (Constrained Baseline) (avc1 / 0x31637661)

Duration 23m29s

Maximum Size 768px × 576px 2.30 GB

Additional Information / Shotlist Dialogue
Drugs are a key element of patient care in every MSF programme.
Ensuring the constant availability of quality drugs involves each member of the team including administrative staff, pharmacists, logisticians and doctors. Every stage, from the manufacture, procurement and storage through to the prescription, is crucial.

This programme provides primary health care, out patient consultations and access to hospitalisation.
Part of my job is to run the pharmacy.
When I arrived, it was very disorganized, very badly run; we had to start from scratch and reorganize the system. It’s now functioning more-or-less OK.
At first it doesn’t look like a fun job but in fact it becomes so
The expat either takes sole charge of the pharmacy, which requires an awful lot of time and effort and which means you have no time to concentrate on anything else;
or it can be run under the supervision of the expatriate, with a fully competent national staff member;
You just have to find someone who is reliable, very meticulous and who you can trust, because, after all, they are in charge of one of the strategic areas/points of the programme.
There’s a patient, I served her medicine, I explained to her how to administer the medicine. But for me to be sure whether she would really do the right thing, this is why I had to call her back to ask her to explain to me, which she did and everything was correct
Very few people here speak the same English as us and you have to be able to explain to them in their local language how to take their medicine, and make sure that they’ve understood; sometimes you can tell them three times and you think they’ve understood, but when you ask them to repeat what you’ve said, you realise they haven’t grasped it at all. So it’s important to have someone who speaks the same language as them.
I’m the medical coordinator; my role is to supervise the teams in the field.
There are three cool boxes like that and this fridge for the vaccines. The vaccine fridge normally goes over there.
Isn’t it be more logical to have them the same place
Yes, but there’s a problem with ventilation.
The fridge could go there, and the cool boxes here.
Yes, I know, we’re doing the best we can.
Fine, just try arrange things as best you can.
The location of the pharmacy is never haphazard; you have to take the time to choose the right place, walk around the buildings we have access to, where you are going to
Dialogue
…be able to work and choose a place which, first, is big enough, so that you have enough space. It’s very important to be able to work in a place where things are not all piled on top of each other.
So this is where all the medical items are?
These are the oral drugs, the suture material, surgical items, transfusions, tests…
ok
I think you should assume that medical activity is going to increase, because it is already increasing, and the next order won’t be before six months.
I’m sure it will be ok
So we’ll have to place the next international order.
I just need to know whether it’s me that’s doing it or Antoine.
I always think it’s better if you do it; I also think it’s those working on the programme who have more information for planning ahead, even if the we in the capital have a better overview; but in the field, you know what’s happening, so you have a more realistic view and you know what supplies you need, what’s lacking etc… (so you do it and) we can always discuss.
It’s not so easy to calculate quantities required as needs can increase for various reasons – for example, the population can increase, which is the case here on this programme… because people are slowly returning from refugee camps; it’s just that we don’t have very exact figures, nor do we have very precise dates, we don’t know. We know that people are going to return, that’s certain; when, how many and where – that’s much harder to estimate.
We also have to evaluate the possible increase of certain illness; for example, the number of cases of malaria increases in the rainy season, and respiratory infections can increase during cold weather, particularly in children under five, for example. Quite frankly, the estimates for these illnesses are very rough, we don’t have precise figures, we don’t have exact percentages, so we have to make a rough estimate, which, thanks to the MSF protocol, allows us to modify our orders.
He can’t feel anything any more..
clinically, the wound itself is getting better but the finger hasn’t really improved.
I also prescribe drugs and that’s what’s so great about this programme – through being in charge of the pharmacy I now realise all the work it entails to get the drug I prescribe in the morning on a spoon and to the patient.
For MSF, I am the person responsible for technical matters and logistics, I’m in charge of setting up the logistics-side of the programme and the procurement, mainly of medical supplies, for the field,

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