Pharmaceutical services management for medicines received through humanitarian aid

In disasters situations donations of great quantities of medicines are common, as part of humanitarian aid. Although these donations are necessary and can save lives and relieve suffering, they can also cause problems. Considering the above mentioned issues, the study aimed to contribute to the appropriate management of medicines received from humanitarian aid, and consequently contribute to build adequate pharmaceutical services within preparedness for disasters situations in countries that suffer from different threats. A search of the literature was undertaken to find constraints faced by countries when receiving medicines as part of the humanitarian aid. Also a review of international guidelines incorporating preparedness, donations and pharmaceutical services was carried out. Analysis allowed the identification of the main problems: backlog of inadequate medicines for the experienced situation, receipt of medicines with expired validity or very close to validity period expiry, problems related to health services structure or involving aspects more directly linked to pharmaceutical services, such as transportation, storage, and distribution. Other constraints were related to regulatory and political issues. According to WHO recommendations, an important measure would be the adoption of the all-hazard/whole-health outlook which suggests developing management strategies for a range of likely events as these different events could cause similar problems. In this sense, some measures are needed such as: identification of the main hazards in the country, and for those, protocols for specific medicines needs must be built; strengthening of the central coordination responsible for receipt and distribution of the stockpile; construction of guidelines with instructions for forecasting needs, searching for different donations sources, receiving, stocking, distributing, prescribing and dispensing medicines. These measures would be helpful to strengthen the overall capacity of the country to efficiently manage different types of disasters and bring about an orderly transition from relief through recovery, and back to sustained development.