One of the key elements in a health system is sound management, that’s the reason why we are working on the strengthening of the capacities of the institutions responsible for the management and the planning of primary healthcare services in Mozambique (and in the rest of countries where cooperation projects are being developed). This is the purpose of the project “Strengthening the Pharmaceutical Management Competencies of the Maputo City Council (CMM)“, which enjoys the support of the Barcelona City Council – Barcelona SolidĂ ria (and was also that of the former project “Increasing the Institutional Capacity of the Maputo City Council (CMM) and its Municipal Directorate of Health and Social Action”).
The aim is to improve pharmaceutical management in the network of primary healthcare centres of Maputo and thus increase the availability of pharmaceutical drugs. That’s the reason why working with the Municipal Directorate of Health and Social Action (DSMSAS) of the Maputo City Council (CMM) together with the support of the Central Drugs and Medical Supplies Procurement Service (CMAM) of the Mozambique’s Ministry of Health was needed. The idea was to replicate at the municipal level the logistic mechanism that’s been used previously at the national level.
The Exchange of Experiences with Barcelona’s Hospital Clinic
The project to improve the knowledge in pharmaceutical management among health care workers from the seven health centres as well as the pharmaceutical area of the DSMSAS, is being developed in conjunction with Barcelona’s Hospital ClĂnic Pharmaceutical Unit, a quality reference service in the area of pharmaceutical management. Therefore, this week, Dr. Yolanda Carla FĂ©lix Manuel, director of the Municipal Directorate of Health and Social Action of the Maputo City Council (CMM), and Marta Celmira Bule, doctor responsible for the pharmaceutical unit of the CMM are visiting Barcelona’s Hospital ClĂnic in order to share knowledge and best practices which could be applied to the pharmaceutical management in Maputo.
This collaboration started last March, when Mr. Carles Codina, Head of the Barcelona’s Hospital ClĂnic Pharmaceutical Unit, and Mr Fernando do Pazo, pharmacist collaborating in the project, met in the Mozambican capital city in order to get to know the Maputo City Council and visited the sanitary facilities, its processes and got to know the workers in charge of the management of pharmaceutical drugs.
The project, which will last two years (March 2014 – April 2016) also envisages the improvement of the pharmaceutical drugs storage facilities, which is a real public health problem to be addressed by identifying weaknesses and by adopting control and prevention measures.
Translated from Spanish into English by Silvia Aymerich
