Posted by Michael Wonder on 07 Dec 2018
A global accountability mechanism for access to essential medicines
8 December 2018 - Access to affordable, quality-assured essential medicines is a prerequisite for effective universal health coverage.
Efforts to ensure comprehensive access to essential medicines have been hindered by a dearth of information. Most monitoring efforts have focused on measurement of a pre-specified list of essential medicines in health facilities. Measures of affordability in private and public health facilities have relied on periodic surveys, usually by non-governmental organisations or academia.
The quality of medicine products and of prescribing practice, as well as patients' use of essential medicines, have been assessed even less often. Pharmaceutical expenditure in the public and private sector is not prioritised in national systems, and is rarely reported.
