Short introduction
The Malawian Central Medical Stores Trust (CMST) provides the majority of medicines and medical supplies for the government health service in Malawi.
The consultants will undertake a study of the feasibility of outsourcing hospital pharmacy services.
Responsibilities
The Consultants will be responsible for ensuring compliance with undertaking a Feasibility Study as determined by the 2011 PPP Act and by the Privatisation Commission, to guide the overall scope and organisation of the study. The Feasibility Study should include:
· Sector analysis of pharmacy service provision, including government, private for profit and non-for profit services:
o Review of how pharmacies are servicing central and district hospitals, both within and out of hospital areas, scale of activity, etc;
o Review evidence and lessons learned from other countries where similar arrangements exist, i.e. pharmacy services not run by the hospital management themselves.
· Pharmacy services availability options for Malawi to have universal access to essential medicines:
o Review of options for Malawians to have continuous access to essential medicines in hospitals, through available pharmaceutical services, be they government or private.
o Recommendation of options to be included for outsourcing pharmacy services.
· Price and Demand forecasts
o Review current and future demand of the essential medicines in Malawian hospitals based on prescriptions provided;
o Review current and future prices for accessing such services in both through public and private pharmacies;
o Develop 10 year forecasts of essential medicine need based on projected disease burden and quantification exercises.
· Financial analysis
a) Cost analysis for each of the different options including:
· Capital costs associated with any rehabilitation of the pharmacies to accommodate any projected expansion in pharmacy service provision;
· Costs associated with any purchase/lease of any equipment associated with the delivery of the selected pharmacy services;
· Annual operational costs associated with complete delivery of pharmacy services.
b) Revenue analysis:
· Forecasts of the revenue to be generated by any supplier of pharmacy services to those in need. This must incorporate revenues from all potential sources, including contributions from Government and end users.
c) Financial analysis:
· Develop a 10 year financial model based on the cost and revenue analysis described above. The primary objective of the analysis is to estimate the likely subsidy and in what form, that will be required to fund the PPP project. It should also inform the decision making process about the affordability levels for Government on each PPP agreement.
· Contracting Structure
· Review the options for the contracting structure working within the framework of government health, and PPP Policies.
· Review of legal and regulatory frameworks and conduct an analysis of its implications for the proposed contracting project.
· Analysis of optimum procurement for the project.
o Provide detailed description of procurement process to be followed, in line with PPP Act, including appropriate timelines.
· Analysis of technical options for the provision of the pharmacy services to be provided to the government under the contract:
o Define the technical specifications of the services to be provided under the project, including capacity requirements and quality of service specifications.
Deliverables
· Inception report indicating the preliminary assessment of the project and the Malawi environment for this project.
· Draft feasibility report addressing all the aspects above for consultation.
· Final feasibility report.
Feasibility Study Team Profile
a) Health Procurement/Contracting specialist and team leader (30 days)
· Post-graduate qualification in Health Services Administration, Business Administration, Procurement and Supply Chain management or similar.
· Extensive (at least 10 years) experience in contract management in the health sector, including managing outsourcing arrangements between the public and private sectors.
a) Pharmacy Services specialist (20 days)
o Accredited MPharm degree.
o Significant (at least 5 years) experience managing pharmacy services, including hospital pharmacies, in low income country settings.
o Experience of managing public-private partnership arrangements desirable.
c) Finance specialist/economist (from MOH based TA) (15 days)
The team may also wish to call on the services of additional specialists, including legal expertise. Good understanding of the Malawian context is highly desirable.
About Options/programme
Options is a leading UK-based consultancy organisation providing technical and management expertise in the health and social sectors to governments and international development partners to transform the health of women and children. We provide information, expertise and influence to governments, health workers, NGOs and businesses to catalyse change so that health services can be accessed by the people who need them most.
Option’s Malawi Health Sector Programme – Technical Assistance programme (MHSP-TA) is providing expertise to enhance implementation of Malawi’s Health Sector Strategic Plan (HSSP 2011–2016).
Benefits
N/A
