The Karnataka State Drugs and Logistics & Warehousing Society (KSDLWS) has put into effect an online drug indenting ‘Drug Distribution Management System (DDMS ).  It has also revised the drug list based on the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM). The new list covers 667 drugs over the earlier 377 medicines and surgical items & sutures. The new list is released after the approval from the State Therapeutic Committees chaired by Dr H C Ramesh, Director, Directorate of Health & Family Welfare Services.

In addition, it embarked on a similar format to track the medical equipment inventory which now comes under the purview of KSDLWS.

The Drug Inventory Management System is the first module of Drug Distribution Management System (DDMS ) implemented four months ago. It ensures efficiency and transparency to source drugs for government healthcare centres. It replaces the manual and cumbersome indent of drugs, chemicals and miscellaneous items of 2014-15 which had printed copies being circulated physically to 3,000 healthcare institutions in the state covering primary heath centres, community health centres, taluk hospitals and district hospitals, Prabhuling Kavalikatti, additional director, KSDLWS told Pharmabiz.

The earlier method limited the capacity of the healthcare institutions based on the budget allotted. For instance, annually PHCs were allocated Rs. 1.2 lakh to Rs. 1.5 lakh. The CHCs were given Rs. 10 lakh , Taluk hospitals received Rs. 10-15 lakh and district hospitals obtained Rs. 25 lakh. The budget was based on the bed strength of each healthcare provider. Now the health and family welfare department has relaxed the rules and a PHC which is generating adequate revenues would get a drug purchase based on their consumption.

The new process has separated the category of drugs and surgical items & sutures. From this year, all healthcare institutions will have access to 81 surgical items & sutures to be ordered separately. It would prevent unnecessary purchase of surgical items & sutures unused in PHCs as all major surgeries are performed at taluk and district hospitals, he added.

The list of 677 drugs and 81 surgical items & sutures is now accessible under drug and surgical items & sutures index which was hosted online early this week. The deadline for the healthcare institutions is to revert is February 28, 2015 after linking on to the system. So far 164 out of the 3,000 healthcare institutions have acknowledged the new system, said the KSDLWS additional director.

The process is definitely in sync with the latest advances ensuring speed , accessibility and monitoring . So long, to have an understanding of the stocks was a time consuming exercise. The Drug Inventory Management System will not just provide the status of stocks for the current year but would give a direction on the demand for next year, he said.