The Purpose of this indicator is to determine if expired drugs are being distributed or sold as one indicator of quality of drugs. The actual process involved checking the expiry dates of the 12 selected key essential drugs available in health facilities, regional drug stores or private retail outlets. Percentage of expired drugs was then calculated at facility level, regional level and national level.
Table 4 above shows that the national percentages of expired drugs were 8.2% in PHCFs (min 0, Max 67), 2% in RDSs (Min 0, Max 8), and 3% in PDROs (Min 0, Max 25). In relative terms, the quality of drugs appears to be best in RDSs and least in PHCFs.
The percentage of expired drugs varied in the six regions (Figure 13) between 3% (in Tigray) to 38% (in Benishangul-Gumuz) showing very significant mean variation (P <<0.05).
This means that, in relative terms, quality of drugs is best in Tigray but least in Benishangul-Gumuz.
Figure 13 Magnitude of expiry of key essential drugs in PHCFs in six regions
When compared by level of health facilities, percentages of expired drugs were 13.1, 9.7 and 7.5 in hospitals (n=7), health centers (n=19) and health stations (n=85), respectively (Figure 14). But the mean variation was insignificant (P>0.05). The figures show that quality of drugs is relatively best in health stations but least in hospitals.
Figure 14 Magnitude of expiry of key essential drugs by level of PHCFs
