If everything goes well as planned, the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare will soon start electronic treatment monitoring systems in The Gambia.
In line with this objective, the Ministry of Health and Social welfare, in collaboration with the International Health Partners UK, Vodafone, Pfizer and Mats Soft for Health, last Wednesday held a two-day training workshop on SMS for Health, at the NaNA conference hall in Kanifing.
Specking at the opening ceremony, the Deputy Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Omar Sey explained that the health management information system has been working with all the relevant stakeholders, both locally and internationally to provide credible, quality and reliable data for planning and decision- making.
Sey further explained that the project has been conceived as a multi-stakeholder partnership. He said Pfizer contributes to The Gambia-IHP fund, which is used to sponsor the project, in partnership with the International Health Partners (IHP).
The current project, he went on, has been conceived following a supply chain study by IHP, identifying the need for a better understanding and monitoring of the supply chain to ensure improved distribution of drugs in The Gambia.
Speaking to journalists shortly after the opening ceremony, Mr. Musa MM Sawo, the Deputy Programme Manager of the Ministry of Health, said the Health Management Information System has been transforming in the past two years to provide credible and reliable data for planning and decision-making.
The project's aim, according to Sawo, is to collect information on weekly basis from all government health facilities on treatments, medicine stock levels and medicine expiry date.
He also informed journalists that the officers-in-charge of public health facilities, pharmacy, technicians and assistants, dispensing assistants, regional public health officer, regional public health nurses, regional store managers and head of RCH teams will be fully participating in the workshop and the implementation of the pilot project.