Storage management and wastage of reproductive health medicines and associated challenges in west Wollega zone of Ethiopia: a mixed cross-sectional descriptive study

Abstract

Background Keeping proper storage conditions at health facilities is vital to reduce pharmaceutical wastage caused by environmental factors. The expiration of medicines at the health facilities could lead to wastage of potentially life-saving drugs and unnecessary expenditure on the disposal of those expired medicines. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess pharmaceutical stores and wastage of reproductive health medicines due to expiration in the west Wollega zone of Ethiopia. Method We conducted a facility-based cross-sectional study from 15th to 31st July 2019 using quantitative and qualitative data from West Wollega Zone of Ethiopia. Results Among 23 health facilities assessed, 17 (73.91%) (4(100%) hospitals and 13(68.42%) health centers) fulfilled desirable storage conditions. Hospitals’ stores had equipment and furniture, fulfilled desirable storage conditions, whereas, a significant number of the health centers’ stores did not comply with desirable storage conditions. Challenges of store management identified were poor store infrastructure and shortage of manpower. The total value of reproductive health medicines wasted due to expire in surveyed facilities was 357,920.52 ETB (12,323.81 US dollars) and the Percentage of Stock Wasted due to Expiration was 8.04%. Levonorgestrel 0.75 mg tablet is the highest in the percentage of stock wasted due to expiry. Factors contributing to wastage due to expiration were supply and demand imbalance. Conclusion Reproductive health medicines wasted due to expiration is high compared to the government of Ethiopia’s plan for the year 2018/19. This might imply that the monitoring of this plan is poor. Even though hospitals store management is good, there is a weakness in store management in health centers. This could be due to poor attention given to health centers. Therefore, west Wollega zonal health department should appropriately monitor the wastage of Reproductive health medicines and enforce health centers to follow appropriate storage guidelines. Hospitals and health centers should not accept medicines beyond their need to reduce expiry.

Assessment of the extent and monetary loss in the selected public hospitals in Jimma Zone, Ethiopia: expired medicine perspectives

“…Solid dosage forms (51.99%) and liquid dosage forms (45.34%) were the most commonly expired medicines in value found in the evaluated hospitals. Different study findings reported from the health facilities of the central Oromia region in south-west Shoa (34) and the west Wollega zone (48) revealed that the percentage wastage rate of expired medicines was high (7.5%) and 8.04% as compared to the present study, respectively. However, the findings of the current study were reported as high when compared with a study conducted in Amara region, Dessie town, Ethiopia, which reported that about 3.68% of medicine expired in the health facilities (49).…”

Assessment of Inventory Management Practice and Associated Challenges of Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health Life-Saving Drugs in Public Hospitals of Southwest Ethiopia: A Mixed-Method Approach

“…In our study, 5(83.33%) hospitals fulfilled the criteria of acceptable storage conditions, which is optimal but below the national maximum of 22 and closely similar to the result of the previous survey, in which 80% of hospitals met the acceptable storage conditions. It is higher than a finding in Lesotho (57.43%) 34 but lower than a finding from the west of the Wollega zone that 4(100%) 32 hospitals met storage criteria. The study is not without limitation, and it was limited to public hospitals.…”

“… 31 In this study, the overall wastage rate was 13.1% which is more than twice the national normal, 22 and higher than a similar previous study where wastage due to expiration was 8.04%. 32 The difference from the standard may be attributed to poor adherence to the Federal Hospitals Pharmacy directive 33 and lower commitment of the store managers. Furthermore, medicines stored in acceptable conditions enable the maintenance of the quality of medicines and reduce the wastage of scarce resources.…”

Inventory management performance for laboratory commodities and their challenges in public health facilities of Gambella Regional State, Ethiopia: A mixed cross-sectional study

“…The highest wasted LC was Acid alcohol and carbol fuchsine, which accounted for 37.5% and 31.3% of their annual budget, respectively. This finding is far above the Ethiopian hospital services transformation guidelines [ 31 ], where the wastage rate should be below 2%, and the study conducted in the West Wollega zone, Ethiopia, 8.04% [ 32 ].…”