Essential Medicines and
Pharmaceutical Policies
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Essential Medicines and |
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Medicines > Essential Medicines Medicines are crucial health care products in the modern health care system. An important function of any health care system is to deliver appropriate health products and services in an equitable, reliable and efficient manner. A public health care system’s quality is usually judged by patients on the basis of two factors: presence of appropriate medical staff and availability of needed medicines. When medicines are not available in public health facilities people go to private pharmacies and buy out of pocket. Poor and vulnerable populations, especially in developing countries, suffer the most. In developing countries, medicines are the second largest category in recurrent public health budgets and a very high percentage of household health budgets are spent on buying medicines. Medicines are the key health products that are used in routine health programmes; vertical health programmes and in times of emergencies. Essential medicines are those that satisfy the priority health care needs of the population. They are selected with due regard to public health relevance, evidence on efficacy and safety, and comparative cost-effectiveness. Essential medicines are intended to be available within the context of functioning health systems at all times in adequate amounts, in the appropriate dosage forms, with assured quality and adequate information, and at a price the individual and the community can afford. The implementation of the concept of essential medicines is intended to be flexible and adaptable to many different situations; exactly which medicines are regarded as essential remains a national responsibility. Sustainable and equitable provision of essential medicines is one of the eight core elements of primary health care. Responding to country needs, WHO’s medicines strategy focuses on four areas of work.
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