What Does Medical Supply Mean To Public Health System?

By Eugenia Dickerson


Most of the items used in the provision of health services are usually not durable. The majority of them gets disposed after use and cannot be shared between patients. In fact, a single patient may not use some of them repetitively. This is the description of materials in category of medical supply. Most of them are prescribed or ordered by the physicians for their own use or for betterment of the health of the patient.

Their use is also limited to single users as there is no sharing and individuals may not use them in a repetitive manner. Others consider those products that can affect the health status of a patient either positively or negatively.

For this reason therefore, proper consideration must always be given in procurement and handling these essential utilities. They play a primary role in the health of both the patients and the health providers. The support staff in health facilities is too must be protected from defective equipment.

While all the effort may be put in place for safer and effective utilities in the medical field, situations have been reported where the utilities are ineffective. These categories of utilities are usually very sensitive in environmental conditions like temperature, moisture, light or even pressure and will easily deteriorate when stored in improper conditions for a long duration. Sometimes the defectiveness of these supplies can be blamed on manufacturers.

Health acquired conditions is a category of any form of ailment, injury or infection acquired by a patient under health facility care. In other words, a patient who comes to seek treatment for something unrelated acquires a new condition in the process of treatment. Falling and breaking a bone or two in the medical facility is an example. Other common infections and conditions that are easily acquired in this manner includes urinary tract infections associated with catheter, blood infections associated with central line, ventilator related pneumonia and even pressure ulcers among many others.

The other victims when it comes to poor quality or defective equipment are the health workers. This category consist of the health professionals like nurses and doctors and support staff like cleaners and others. There are reports where doctors sustain injuries when handling this equipment. The situation can even be worse when they get infected with life threatening ailments as a result of defective equipment. For protective measures, gloves, masks and other protective cloths are normally used.

Thanks to technology, most of the supplies in the hospitals today are usually of the required standard. Stringent measures are put in place in the manufacturing process with quality assessment at various levels to assure that only top quality products reach health facilities.

It however still remains the sole responsibility of the manufacturers and suppliers of the medical supply equipment, medicines and other related chemicals to ensure that such items are best of quality. The regulatory bodies on the other hand must tighten laws and regulations and double their effort to ensure the health sector remains risk free.




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