The Global Fund country team recently visited the Joint Medical Stores in Kampala as part of their country mission visit. The team was led by Senior Portfolio Manager, Dr. Saman Zamani and Health Products Management Specialist, Idris Rafiu. The meeting was also attended by representatives from the Funds Coordination Unit of the Global Fund Grants at the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development together with representatives of the Local Fund Agent (PwC) of the Global Fund in Uganda.  

The team was received by the JMS Executive Director, Dr. Bildard Baguma together with his team. Key among the discussions was the planned documentation of Resilient and Sustainable Systems for Health (RSSH). According to the Global Fund team, the systems that have been supported by the Global Fund are going to be documented to capture their impact, with the intention of using the documentation to support the next Global Fund replenishment drive. On his part, Dr Baguma said they are looking forward to the documentation process and they will be ready to support it  

Both Dr Zamani and Dr Baguma appreciated the collaboration and partnership between the Joint Medical stores and the Global Fund in regard to strengthening health service delivery and health systems in general.

The Joint Medical Stores is licensed by the National Drug Authority (NDA) to engage in the export, import, whole sale of medicines and related health supplies. JMS also installs and maintains medical equipment.

JMS has a fully-fledged medical equipment department with biomedical engineers and technicians who provide services to mainly accredited units and others who need it. The services range from CT scans to X-ray machines and laboratory equipment. Currently, the stores have about 2,000 customers and 600 accredited health units.   

JMS also supports the Government and donors in storing and distribution of free commodities that come through donations such as Global Fund, the US President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief and the Presidential Malaria Initiative. JMS also has a mandate to provide trainings, coaching and other forms of capacity building, especially for accredited health units. “The areas we are conversant with are logistics management and managing of the supply chain to ensure that the health units are effi cient in their work,” Baguma says. This in turn eases the work of the stores because then the health units can quantify their needs and JMS can supply them when the need arises.