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Sri Lanka Navy Journal 53

on a recurrent basis. The goal of CMS is to ensure that there is adequate stock of
required pharmaceuticals so that an uninterrupted supply of all essential items
is maintained.

Despite these facts, occasionally there are evidences that naval patients suffer
from non-availability of prescribed pharmaceuticals or delay in receiving their
pharmaceuticals, even though SLN budget allocation has increased more than
200 percent compare to years 2010 with 2016 as per above figure 1. On the
other hand, present navy carder of more than 48,000 active members with their
immediate family members and annually growth of retired naval persons alarm
high demand for pharmaceuticals which will rise steeply and continuously.

Various research studies have found that sound hospital inventory
control measures for expensive drugs have resulted in 20 percent of savings
(Gopalakrishnan and Sundaresan, 1985). Therefore, there is no denying that
storing pharmaceuticals and supplies can be expensive and tie up a lot of money
in freeze. Besides, Gill, Biger and Mathur (2010) argue that excess inventory is
an additional liability as-it uses valuable storage space and increases inventory
costs.

Therefore, the medical administrators must establish efficient inventory
control policies for regular operating conditions that ensure clinical ability to
meet emergency demand conditions (Duclos, 1993). Thus, it recognises the
significance of introducing a scientific inventory control mechanism to CMS of
SLN. Eventually, it emphasises the need for planning, designing and organising
the medical stores in such a manner that result in cost saving and clinical
efficiency.
Present Stock Management System

At present procurement staff place orders on ‘fixed time period’ model for all
pharmaceuticals and pay attention on equal basis for all drugs. This has led to
keep unnecessary consignment of pharmaceuticals in stocks due to equal focus.
As a consequence, CMS holds excessive amount of some pharmaceuticals stock.
When discussed about fixed time period ordering method, CMS forwards next
year annual requirements to the government Medical Supplies Division (MSD)
on month of November and collects pharmaceuticals on months of January and
February in next year. Then pharmaceuticals which are not available in MSD
and branded pharmaceuticals are purchased through registered vendors by
competitive tender calls. Usually this type of tender call is carried out on annual
basis for non-fast-moving drugs and half yearly for fast moving drugs.
Therefore, tenders are called in mid of October for annual pharmaceutical
requirement. Half yearly tenders are called in April and October. Moreover, CMS
has authorised to purchase pharmaceuticals worth of three million per month
from State Pharmaceutical Corporation (SPC) outlets situated in Colombo 07