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For Francophone members: Bourse pour le séminaire de formation de l’OMS – juin 2012

Du 11 au 15 juin 2012, l'OMS organise un Séminaire sur les politiques pharmaceutiques pour les experts francophones, à Genève. Difaem, partenaire et membre de l’EPN, offre une bourse pour un membre de l’EPN. La date limite pour soumettre votre candidature est le 30 mars 2012.

Cliquez ici pour plus d'information.

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Course on Advances in Pharmaceutical Care, Nairobi, Kenya

Gertrude's Children's Hospital in Nairobi, an EPN member, organized a regional training course on Advances in Pharmaceutical Care, from September 26^th to 30^th 2011, in Nairobi, Kenya. The focus was on Paediatric Extemporaneous Formulations and Medication Safety. The training was open to physicians, pharmacy personnel in hospital or community settings, nurses, interested health officials in hospitals, ministries of health, university and private organizations. The course language is English.

Read more: Gertrude's training course (465.75 kB)

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Rational Management of Medicines course in Pretoria, South Africa

Once again our member and partner organization in Germany, Difaem, awarded 2 scholarships to EPN members to attend the Swiss Tropical Institute course on Rational Management of medicines to be held in Pretoria South Africa, from October 30^th to November 11^th 2011. Dr Kenneth Kabali of Uganda Protestant Medical Bureau, and Chivese Panganayi nominated by Zimbabwe Association of Church-related Hospitals attended the course. 

Click here to read the participants reports.

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Pharmacoeconomics training by WHO in Accra, Ghana

At the end of April 2011, EPN announced the availability of scholarships for members to attend the WHO Pharmacoeconomics training in Ghana. The scholarships were offered by EPN member and partner Difaem. The EPN Secretariat received numerous applications. 3 scholarships were awarded, covering course fees and transport. Etimiri Babatunde Olukoya of CHAN Medi-Pharm (Nigeria), Elise Uwineza of Bufmar (Rwanda) and Paul Amedzi of National Catholic Health Service (Ghana) attended the 10-day training course on the use of pharmacoeconomics in medicines selection, from June 13^th to 24^th 2011 in Accra, Ghana.

"Facilitation was good and methodology very fruitful. The opportunity of sharing ideas with knowledgeable people of diverse orientations from different parts of the globe is one thing I will continuously miss."  Paul Amedzi, CDC Ghana

Click here to read the reports on the participant's experiences and lessons learnt during the course.

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Grants to support training in pharmacy for hospital staff

EPN, with funds from development organization Bread for the World, has made available grants to support staff working in the pharmacies of church hospitals to undertake 1 – 2 year courses leading to the award of a pharmacy qualification accepted in the applicant’s country. The target is to have 16 candidates enroll for a pharmacy course recognized in their country and finish successfully by 2013. In March 2011, a scholarship committee to oversee the awarding of the grants was put in place, comprising of Ruth Njoroge (Catholic Relief Services), Rev. Dr. Simon Dossou (AACC), Justus Marete (Africa of Bethany Kids) and Anke Meiburg and Beatrice Mwangi of EPN. The scholarship committee had its second meeting on July 18^th 2011 to deliberate on the applications. Although several scholarships are still subject to confirmation from the schools, 13 scholarships were so far awarded:

•    5 candidates from Sudan were awarded the scholarship subject to the Kenyan School where they intend to come and study accepting to admit them.
•    2 candidates from DRC were awarded, they will begin the course in September
•    1 candidate from Niger was awarded pending clarification from the suitable school
•    2 candidates from Tanzania were awarded (1 of them pending payment of subscription fees)
•    1 candidate from Sierra Leone was awarded, he will study an online course offered by Pen Foster College
•    2 candidates from Cameroon were awarded pending confirmation from CBC Health School.

Click here to read the call for applications (the deadline for applications has passed).

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Grants for advocacy activities following the 2010 workshop in Douala

In February 2011, EPN launched a call for Expressions Of Interest to engage in advocacy activities on pharmaceutical issues open to all members. Seven member organizations replied to the call by submitting applications which were reviewed, taking into account the likelihood of success for this one-off activity, the target group and the nature of the advocacy issue. One grant was given out to Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Board in Cameroon, while for the majority of the other applications it was felt that the issue to be tackled would rather need long-term advocacy.
CBC HB runs a private training school for health personnel and will use the grant in the course of the coming months to advocate with the Pharmacy Council and the Ministry of Health for accreditation of their pharmacy training courses which have been running for a number of years. The accreditation is important for the course, which contributes to alleviating the shortage of pharmacy personnel in Church Health Institutions. 

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Grants for AMR activities 2010

After the EPN AMR workshop in Nairobi, from May 5^th to 7^th 2010, 10 ReAct grants were given to members to implement various AMR-related activities, from May to October 2010. CHAN Medi-Pharm Nigeria, Christian Health Association of Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe Association of Church Related Hospitals did the hospital antibiotic use and AMR perception study. Coalition for Rational and Safe Use of Medicines Moldova, Joint Medical Store Uganda and BUFMAR Rwanda have organized capacity building courses on rational management and use of antibiotics. Finally, Annamalai University India, Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Board, Institut Médical Chrétien du Kasaï/Hôpital Bon Berger Tshikaji DRC and Organisation Catholique pour la Santé au Cameroun were working on the implementation of hospital based infection control interventions.
Click here to read the reports on these activities: AMR containment member activities synthesis report 2010 (601.3 kB) 

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Grants for promotion of EPN guidelines and addressing gaps identified in the EPN access baseline studies 2010

In July 2010, EPN availed small grants for members to promote the adoption of and compliance with EPN guidelines for effective and efficient pharmaceutical services or to take action to address gaps identified in the access baseline studies (done in Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda and Zambia).
Specific interventions to promote and disseminate the guidelines are to take place or are currently taking place by EPN member institutions in two countries. Ghana interventions are led by CHAG. In Kenya, interventions are spearheaded by Maua Hospital (targeting Eastern and Northern provinces) and MEDS (targeting Western and Central provinces and Nairobi). It is expected that at least 300 church health facilities will be reached.
On the gaps identified in the access baseline studies, APROMESTO (Togo, targeting 4 hospitals and 2 clinics) and CHAM (Malawi, targeting 6 hospitals) chose to address the lack of Medicines and Therapeutics Committees (MTC). MEMS (Tanzania, targeting 6 hospitals) also opted to strengthen existing MTCs and encourage establishment of new ones where none exist. In all, at least 14 hospitals are expected to have functional MTCs by the end of the interventions. JMS plans to address the lack of pharmaceutical information for decision making by developing and piloting a Pharmaceutical Management Information System for use in hospitals.
Check back soon to read the reports on these activities.

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Rational Management of Medicines course in Pretoria - November 1^st to 12^th 2010

Thanks to a Difäm scholarship, EPN members Veronica Vugutsa (Kijabe Mission Hospital Kenya), Eugene Conteh (Christian Health Association of Sierra Leone) and Natalia Cebotarenco (CoRSUM Moldova) attended the Swiss Tropical Institute course on Rational Management of Medicines in Pretoria, South Africa, from November 1^st to 12^th 2010. The course focused on HIV, Malaria and TB medicines, but went far beyond those three aspects, looking specifically at the natural cycle of drugs, the role of the pharmacist and health care professional, the importance of knowing who the manufacturer is and keeping the chain intact, as well as irrational use and the essential medicines list concept. Finally, the new guidelines released by WHO on HIV and AIDS were discussed. Our members appreciated the presence of expert speakers and found the sharing of country initiatives very interesting.

"The main learning point for me was my role in ensuring the patients passing through my hands get the best quality medicines. I have a part to play by ensuring that I know the chain from whoever manufactures the product until the product gets to me. I may not have the capacity to perform chemical tests but by keeping the chain intact I can ensure I get quality." Veronica Vugutsa

"I was very much impressed by the high caliber of Course facilitators we had. Our team (participants) was also made up of well educated professionals with vast amount of knowledge, such that we all benefited from each other."  Eugene Conteh

Click here to read the full reports.

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WHO/UNICEF Joint Technical Briefing Seminar on Essential Medicines in Geneva - November 1^st to 5^th 2010

Also through an EPN scholarship, Andrew Cohen Wasswa of Joint Medical Store, Uganda attended the WHO/UNICEF Joint Technical Briefing Seminar on Essential Medicines from November 1^st to 5^th 2010 in Switzerland. The course exposed participants to work done and in the pipeline at WHO and current issues in the following areas: national drug policies, selection of essential medicines, access to essential drugs including affordability and financing, innovation and intellectual property, drug procurement and supply systems, pharmacovigilance and drug safety, promoting rational medicine use, prequalification of medicines, etc. Mr Wasswa concludes that the work done by WHO and its collaborating centres has resulted in the development of enormous resources in form of publications (available from the WHO website) that can add value to our efforts. He feels that the main learning points for EPN members are Prequalification of suppliers, Inspection of manufacturers and Reviewing of supplier contracts.

Click here to read the full report. 

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