CubaPLUS Magazine

Created 15 years ago, the Unidad Empresarial de Base Mayorista de Medicamentos Cienfuegos is currently an essential component in the health sector in this southcentral Cuban city, since it is in charge of guaranteeing the adequate distribution of medicines in the territory to satisfy the requirements of its population.

With the current epidemiological situation the country is experiencing caused by COVID-19, the role played by this organization has become more important due to the population’s need for the products it markets, aimed at preventing, alleviating or curing diseases.

This is why, its director, engineer Isabel Silva, told CubaPLUS magazine, EMCOMED Cienfuegos makes a daily effort to comply with the norms, procedures and regulations that govern the system of commercialization of medicines, while ensuring compliance of best practice in storage (GAP), distribution (GDP) and transportation (GTP), to avoid the loss of the medicines’ organoleptic properties and to maintain quality standards.

We provide service", she pointed out, &to 135 clients from the health system and other organizations from the province, among them 84 pharmacies, three hospitals, 20 polyclinics and 16 support units, among other entities".

As far as the institution’s job of distribution, the executive explained that they work with a fortnightly cycle for the pharmacies and monthly for the rest of the care institutions. Meanwhile, they have 24-hour services to attend to emergencies that occur where essential medicines are lacking, which may compromise the life of patients.

To achieve efficiency in their work, engineer Silva explained that they have supported software systems that provide all necessary information to monitor the critical path of the medicines.

This, together with the system established by the Distribution Center, where each customer’s dispatch is carried out in each storage area, has accomplished efficient work and, most importantly, satisfied requirements. All this effort, considered the director, &has been in line with fulfilling the planned work objectives and this is shown by us being a leading group at company level every year with our results and our being awarded Colectivo Vanguardia Nacional status four times."

Later, the executive explained that the company she directs is working notably to improve information and communications technologies in order to raise efficiency in logistical services and future investments.

The aspects they are working on relate to logistics support for clinical trial services, studies of safety and effectiveness in the real world of oncological medicines, the introduction of computerization in the medicine distribution center and the development of a method of receipt by weighing.

Finally, engineer Silva referred to the future of the work of the organization she represents and said that &the perspectives of the UEB Cienfuegos is to become a 4PL(*) Logistic Operator, to maintain the ISO 9001:2015 quality certification and the center’s accounting, as well as guarantee the efficiency and continuous improvement of all processes, relying on our competent, responsible personnel, with a sense of belonging and committed to the people’s health".

(*) Logistics service providers whose role is to ensure that supply chain and cost/effectiveness relationships are optimized through the management of a wide variety of integrated logistics services for their customers.

Contact
Lic. &Aángel Luis Chacón Padrón
Address: Calzada de Vento no. 4161
e/ Línea de Ferrocarril y Callejón
de Miraflores, Cerro, La Habana, Cuba.
Phones: +53 7649 1085 / +53 7648 7996
Email: angel.chacon@oc.emcomed.cu
www.facebook / emcomed
www.twitter / Emcomed1