Centralised Medical Supplies Procurement And Health Service Delivery In Arusha And Kilimanjaro Regions, Tanzania

Abstract

Centralised medical procurement and supply have emerged as one of advocacy strategy toward cost effective, reliable and improved quality of medical supplies in government owned hospitals. This study analysed the relationship between medical supply under centralised public procurement system and service delivery, with focus from selected government owned hospitals in Northern Tanzania. The study adopted descriptive research design and census sampling to collect data from 61 respondents from government hospitals based in Kilimanjaro and Arusha Regions. Data were analysed using content analysis, descriptive statistics, chi – square test and ordinal logistic regression. The study revealed that, centralised medical procurement procedure enhanced health service delivery to a moderate extent (2.68 ≤ mean ≤ 4.58) with overall mean = 3.3 as well as medical supplies availability at the service delivery point to a moderate extent (Mean = 3.25; Standard Deviation = 1.10). Organisation capacity has significant and positive effect on health service delivery (P = 0.000). The study therefore concluded that medical supply under centralised procurement system improves the quality and cost effectiveness towards health services delivery. However, bureaucratic procedures results into untimely delivery and inadequate quantities of medical supplies. Among others, the study recommended on the need of the entities to train staff on how to integrate, monitor and share medical supplies information on timely basis in order to improve service delivery.