On the direction of Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, Medicines Supply Chain Management is being set up in the province for which a high level meeting between Punjab Minister for Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education Khawaja Salman Rafique and delegation of Turkish Ministry of Health was held at Civil Secretariat on Wednesday.
Punjab Additional Chief Secretary Shamail Ahmed Khawaja, Members of Turkish delegation Dr Hasan Cagil, Dr Taha Yayce and Dr Fatih Karademir, Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education Secretary Najam Ahmed Shah, Secretary Primary and Secondary Health Ali Jan Khan, King Edward Medical University Vice Chancellor Prof. Faisal Masood, Consultant Dr Naeem ud Din Mian, Procurement Specialist Tayyib Farid, Additional Secretary Drug Control Dr Muhammad Sohail and Deputy Secretary Health Dr Yadullah attended the meeting.
The delegation was briefed about the present system of medicines procurement, storage and supply to the hospitals, system for transportation of medicines and maintenance of the quality. Khawaja Salman Rafique said that a robust and modern medicines supply chain management system was being established in Punjab to maintain quality of medicines and for this purpose information technology would be used for preparing software.
He further said that modern warehouses are also being set up to stock the medicines at the recommended temperature and its transportation to the hospitals. The minister said that Turkey has a developed system of supply chain management right from the manufacturing units to the hospitals and Punjab would benefit from the experience of the Turkish experts and the model of Turkish system would be replicated in Punjab according to local needs.
The meeting decided that the Turkish experts will visit different institutions of health, warehouses and cold storages and after that they will present their study report along with recommendations which would be presented to the chief minister on coming Sunday for setting up of latest medicine supply chain management system.
Later, the Turkish delegation along with Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education Minister Khawaja Salman Rafique visited the health department’s medicines store depot (MSD), Gulberg, where General Manager Dr Razzaq briefed the guests regarding the storage and supply system of the MSD.