ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination Mrs Saira Afzal Tarar on Thursday said that innovative steps had been taken for revamping storage, supply and management of life-saving vaccines of children.
In a press briefing, the minister said that all of these reforms were expected to improve vaccine management, governance and accountability to serve Pakistani children better and prevent them from vaccine preventable diseases.
She said that there could be no compromise on the quality standards, storage conditions and management of life saving vaccines for children.
She said, "We had to deal with an adverse situation. However, since our intentions were right, adversity converted into an opportunity for us to take a closer look at the deficiencies and inadequacies and completely revamp the vaccine storage and management system to make it state-of-the-art and at par with internationally accepted standards."
She said that a fact finding inquiry was instituted immediately and stern action was taken where it was found that there was negligence by any official. The entire team from top to bottom was removed, she added.
A fresh team was assigned the task to revamp the entire system, which was mainly assisted by USAID through deliver project.
Saira Afzal Tarar said that the validated vaccine data could be accessed from anywhere in the world through web based vLMIS system while EPI operations could be monitored online. International good practices including GS 1 Barcoding, scanning, and stock sufficiency are being managed and monitored on daily basis, she added.
She said 30 supply chain experts, who worked on the average 10 hours per day for 40 days, had now introduced GS 1 barcoding and scanning to validate quantities of vaccines and ancillary products in the cold rooms, freezers and dry stores and putting data online in the vLMIS system to optimize stock management.
She said that federal EPI with the assistance of partners like USAID Deliver has developed five policy and operational level documents which would be used for compliance at the EPI.
She thanked USAID Deliver Pakistan for providing support to reform the federal EPI cold rooms and dry stores which included warehouse equipment, scanners, computers, security cameras, safety equipment, EPI hotline and video conferencing capability with the provincial EPI programs for strengthening routine immunization services and capacity building on vLMIS systems.
She said that to cater the urgent need for human resource, the ministry has advertised 49 vacant positions. Once hired these officials will be provided training on the best practices being followed internationally.
She said procedures of receipts, storage and issuance or transportation of vaccine is now being brought at par with international protocols and SOPs.
She said that physical count, inventory management and re- arrangement of vaccines as per batch number, expiry date and VVM was being carried out besides complete operationalization of vLMIS to ensure real-time data visibility, quality and accountability.
She said the Vaccine Logistics Manuals had been developed according to international standards. Upgrading and renovation of stores at Federal EPI was underway, including safety measures, electric repairs and maintenance of all equipment.
The minister said that revision of SOPs and job descriptions was being done to ensure improved inventory management through full operationalization of vLMIS.
She said a state-of-the-art vLMIS operations room was being established at Federal EPI which would work as a nerve-center for dissemination.
She said that the Federal EPI was preparing a transition plan whereby capacity building of the staff being recruited by the Ministry would be ensured.
She said that completion timeframe of reforms was three months which would be followed by the reforms in Provincial EPI stores while implementation of best warehousing practices was being ensured.
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