Developing a grass-roots method for monitoring medicines shortages in southern Africa: Report of a pilot in Namibia

Shortages of medicines is a global problem that can have significant impact on health outcomes of patients and reduce the effectiveness of public health programmes. There are a multitude of reasons for medicines shortages occurring, however, and it is important for specific country settings to better understand the issues affecting medicines supply in order to effectively intervene. Namibia relies heavily on imports of medicines as it does not have an adequate pharmaceutical industry sector developed enough to produce sufficient medicines for the burden of disease arising. In addition, because there is no unifying system of medicines monitoring it is difficult to plan interventions to resolve common medicines shortages. This study reports the findings from a pilot survey that was undertaken to improve the information monitoring of medicines shortages in Namibia. The survey sought information from medicines suppliers from various pharmacy sectors who may provide a vital insight into how medicines shortages should be monitored and the causes of shortages observed in Namibia. A more robust survey as part of a broader system can be informed by this survey to address the shortage of medicines in Namibia and surrounding region.