The General Information Authority (GIA) reported last Tuesday that on 27 August it began the process of entering the data of the Medical Supply Organisation’s (MSO) medicines supply and distribution into a digital system.
The GIA said it relied on the latest technical developments in the field of file and data management in the entry process, and according to advanced computer programmes that ensure the achievement of highly accurate results for the data entered.
Regarding the data entry mechanism, the Director of the National Information System Department at the GIA, Adel Jumaa Al-Toumi, explained that data entry is done electronically directly into the MSO’s system, where a specialized technical team from the GIA enters data on the supply and distribution of medicines in an organised accurate and rapid manner.
The GIA said the project comes within its efforts in implementing its plans aimed at facilitating transaction procedures for all Libyan state institutions and providing them with high quality and efficiency in a way that ensures accelerating the pace of completion.
Analysis
It is worth noting that the state MSO has consistently been allocated an annual budget of over half a billion diners for decades to import and supply medicines and medical equipment free to state hospitals across Libya.
However, despite this huge budget, there has always been shortages of important medicines at Libya’s state hospitals while these state-subsidised medicines were to be found for sale at chemists. The organisation was notorious for its reputation of corruption and inefficiency. The MSO could only order medicines from the official medicine list. The drafting of the list was deemed questionable with several large suppliers monopolising the list.
Digitising its procurement and distribution process is an effort to counter its inefficiency and corruption. It comes as a nationwide effort by the Tripoli-based government to implement a digital transformation policy for all state sectors.
In 2013, the Health Minister at the time called for the scrapping of the MSO and allowing hospitals to order their own medicine.
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