Department of Pharmacy Practice, Temple University School of Pharmacy, Philadelphia, United States of America (USA).
Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare, Eldoret, Kenya.
Bull World Health Organ. 2021 May 1;99(5):388-392. doi: 10.2471/BLT.20.271593. Epub 2021 Feb 10.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has disrupted health systems worldwide and threatened the supply of essential medicines. Especially affected are vulnerable patients in low- and middle-income countries who can only afford access to public health systems.
Soon after physical distancing and curfew orders began on 15 March 2020 in Kenya, we rapidly implemented three supply-chain strategies to ensure a continuous supply of essential medicines while minimizing patients' COVID-19 exposure risks. We redistributed central stocks of medicines to peripheral health facilities to ensure local availability for several months. We equipped smaller, remote health facilities with medicine tackle boxes. We also made deliveries of medicines to patients with difficulty reaching facilities.
Τo implement these strategies we leveraged our 30-year partnership with local health authorities in rural western Kenya and the existing revolving fund pharmacy scheme serving 85 peripheral health centres.
In April 2020, stocks of essential chronic and non-chronic disease medicines redistributed to peripheral health facilities increased to 835 140 units, as compared with 316 330 units in April 2019. We provided medicine tackle boxes to an additional 46 health facilities. Our team successfully delivered medications to 264 out of 311 patients (84.9%) with noncommunicable diseases whom we were able to reach.
Our revolving fund pharmacy model has ensured that patients' access to essential medicines has not been interrupted during the pandemic. Success was built on a community approach to extend pharmaceutical services, adapting our current supply-chain infrastructure and working quickly in partnership with local health authorities.
2019 年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行扰乱了全世界的卫生系统，并威胁到基本药物的供应。受影响最大的是中低收入国家的弱势患者，他们只能负担得起公共卫生系统的服务。
2020 年 3 月 15 日肯尼亚开始实行社交隔离和宵禁措施后，我们迅速实施了三项供应链策略，以确保在尽量降低患者感染 COVID-19 风险的同时，基本药物的持续供应。我们将中央库存的药品重新分配到周边卫生设施，以确保当地有几个月的供应。我们为较小的偏远卫生设施配备了药品工具包。我们还为难以到达医疗机构的患者提供药品配送服务。
为了实施这些策略，我们利用了在肯尼亚西部农村地区与当地卫生当局 30 年的合作伙伴关系，以及为 85 个周边卫生中心提供服务的现有循环基金药房计划。
2020 年 4 月，重新分配到周边卫生设施的基本慢性病和非慢性病药物库存增加到 835140 单位，而 2019 年 4 月为 316330 单位。我们为另外 46 个卫生设施提供了药品工具包。我们的团队成功为 311 名非传染性疾病患者中的 264 名（84.9%）提供了药物，这些患者我们都能够联系上。
我们的循环基金药房模式确保了在大流行期间患者获得基本药物的机会没有中断。成功的基础是一种扩展制药服务的社区方法，我们调整了当前的供应链基础设施，并与当地卫生当局迅速合作。
