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Supply chain management and health systems: a conversation

Human resourcing aspects also bring challenges to supply chain management. Some of these challenges are discussed by Dr Arletty Pinel in this video.

We wonder if you noticed the links to the previous week (human resources for health) in Arletty’s comments in this video. We were struck by her comments about the challenge of attracting the right people with the right skills who get the right support into the supply chain management system. She highlighted the following difficulties:

Understaffed supply chain programs with no “allure” to attract the most qualified workforce
Difficulty linking supply chain human resources to national human resources for health policies and plans
Difficulty in defining competencies for the human resources needed in a supply chain management program from central to community levels
Going beyond short-term training to comprehensive solutions that train, support and reward human resources
Delivery in hard-to-reach areas is heavily dependent on community health workers that have multiple responsibilities

Reflecting on last week’s material, what might be some good first steps to address these challenges? Remember: “we manage what we measure”; do we have measures for the human resources and their skills required for a well functioning supply chain? Share your ideas in the comments section below.