Assuntos
Almoxarifado Central Hospitalar/organização & administração , Medicamentos Essenciais , Automedicação/economia , Sistemas Locais de Saúde , Preparações Farmacêuticas , Programas de Imunização/organização & administração , Vacinas , Armazenamento de Medicamentos/métodos , Uso de Medicamentos , Manual de Referência , Serviço Hospitalar de Compras , Revisão da Utilização de Recursos de Saúde/organização & administraçãoAssuntos
Medicamentos Essenciais , Custos de Medicamentos/tendências , Automedicação/economia , Uso de Medicamentos/economia , Região do Caribe , Política de Saúde , América Latina , Sistemas Locais de Saúde , Legislação de Medicamentos/economia , Planejamento Estratégico , Sistemas de Medicação/legislação & jurisprudênciaRESUMO
Increasing pressures on health systems and significant economic changes in many Latin American and Caribbean countries make reforms to the health and pharmaceutical sectors imperative. While health and pharmaceutical needs continue to mount, trade and price liberalization policies implemented to revitalize economies are frequently associated with higher pharmaceutical expenses. Such conditions affect the poor disproportionately, further aggravating existing imbalances in society. The fundamental principle of optimal health sector reform is that access to quality health services is a right of all individuals. From this principle, three objectives are identified: universality and equity in access, quality, and efficiency. Each country must shape health sector reform in accordance with its priorities and social and economic conditions, but pharmaceutical reform must be incoporated within health sector reform and should seek to ensure that all individuals have access to essential drugs and to quality health services. The essential drugs concept, advocated by WHO through its Action Programme on Essential Drugs and PAHO, stresses availability, affordability, quality, and rational use of drugs. Five areas are central to reform strategy: the roles of the public and private sectors, drug financing alternatives, pricing policies, generic strategies, and rational drug use (AU)