The effectiveness of any drug supply systems in providing a trustworthy supply of essential drugs is a critical issue. To evaluate this effectiveness, it is necessary to watch over the status of the essential medicines in any country impartially and continuously. Some countries and also the World Health Organization (WHO) have codified a list of minimum medicines needed for a basic health care ...

BACKGROUND Health care system reform is a major issue in many countries and therefore how to evaluate the effects of changes is incredibly important. This study measured residents' satisfaction with community health care service in Shanghai, China, and aimed to evaluate the effect of recent health care system reform. METHODS Face-to-face interviews were performed with a stratified random samp...

Serious instability occurred only with ergometrine injection. This result is in line with two earlier longitudinal studies during transport to and within tropical countries, in which only ergometrine injection, methylergometrine injection, and retinol capsules showed a loss of active ingredient; 12 other essential drugs were stable. 5 As all three studies focused on essential drugs suspected of...

The Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) of Afghanistan has adopted the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) as a tool to measure and manage performance in delivery of a Basic Package of Health Services. Based on results from the 2004 baseline round, the MOPH identified eight of the 29 indicators on the BSC as priority areas for improvement. Like the 2004 round, the 2005 and 2006 BSCs involved a random selecti...

Prior to 1994, most Delhi hospitals and dispensaries experienced constant shortages of essential medicines. There was erratic prescribing of expensive branded products, frequent complaints about poor drug quality and low patient satisfaction. Delhi took the lead in developing a comprehensive Drug Policy in 1994 and was the only Indian state to have such a comprehensive policy. The policy's main...

Access to safe surgery should be considered as part of the basic human right for health, but unfortunately, this ideal is far from being reached in many low-income countries. Pulse oximetry is recommended as a minimum standard of monitoring by all anesthesia organizations that have set standards, yet around 78,000 operating theaters worldwide lack this essential monitor. The WHO Safe Surgery Sa...

In Burkina Faso, households are the main source of health financing. Based on out-of-pocket health payments, the current system is a major cause of poverty. The purpose of this study is to contribute to the improvement of local health funding in Loumbila and throughout the country. A descriptive and analytical study was conducted among 271 household heads, 3 health committee members, the top st...

Since the 1970s the Brazilian government has made efforts to implement a pharmaceutical policy that, in spite of a market predominantly oligopolized and dominated by multinational pharmaceutical industries, guarantees access to essential drugs for the population. In this context, in 1999, a law regarding generics was approved. This article aims at analyzing the elements that interfered in the i...

During the 1980s, an ambitious project for health development restructured medical services throughout rural Haiti. The "Rural Health Delivery System" (RHDS) pursued several goals of primary health care, including dispensary-based maternal and child health services and the provision of low-cost drugs. Based on fieldwork in a single village, this article examines how local residents pushed the p...

Background: While local anesthetics are essential drugs in dentistry, risks such as paresthesia are associated with their use. The purpose of this study was to analyze the reported paresthesia cases in the United Kingdom. Methods: Voluntary reports of paresthesia from local anesthetic use between 1998 and 2008 obtained from UK’s Yellow Card Scheme were examined. Statistical significance was tes...