Mali

Mission Overview: Missions to Mali were active from 2006-2010. PSF Canada worked in collaboration with Kolokani Regional Hospital (located in the Koulikoro region) and Point G Hospital in the capital. Contact was also made with the National Order of Pharmacists who further introduced to many partners in the area (local pharmacies, pharmacists, and medication warehouse managers).

Mission Objectives: Missions were focused on pharmacy and warehouse infrastructure development, improvements to pharmacist-patient relations and communication, and targeted training for rural pharmacy and medical staff with the collaboration with local experts. Mission Outcome Summary: All objectives were met. Staff training was developed for warehouse depot staff. Pictogram communication tools where developed to facilitate pharmacist/patient communications, overcoming challenges of multiple local dialects. Training sessions to patients and villagers on numerous preventative and treatment topics was accomplished as well as presentations to local physicians and pharmacists.

Montenegro

Mission Overview: PSF Canada collaborated with Pharmaciens Sans Frontières Comité International (PSFCI) and was tasked by the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) to improve infrastructure and provide and distribute medications within state structures. Montenegro was experiencing healthcare system duress due to an influx of refugees from Bosnia and Kosovo during the Yugoslav Wars. This mission took place from October 2000 to April 2001 and was based in the capital Podogrica.

Mission Objectives: To provide and distribute drugs and products to state structures such as hospitals and publicly funded pharmacies. To implement Good Pharmacy Practice (GPP), a set of standards set out by WHO to ensure good quality basic pharmaceutical services. To form an association, to represent the interests of pharmacists Mission Outcome Summary: The completion of program funded by ECHO resulted in 5 months of drug supplies and training to pharmacists and pharmacy staff. PSFCI provided drugs and missing products to more than 50 state structures (community pharmacists and hospitals). Training was provided training for government agencies and hospitals in regards to stock management, procurement and distribution. The Chamber of Pharmacists of Montenegro was recreated, which gave way to a return of the Pharmacists Association.

Kosovo

Mission Overview: In 1998, at the end of the Yugoslav war, Pharmaciens Sans Frontières Comité International (PSFCI) was granted funding by the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) to restore the drug distribution network and to determine the functionality of care centers throughout Kosovo. In November 1999 PSF Canada arrived in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, as part of a team for PSFCI. PSF was also responsible for four other regions: Mitrovica, Gnjilane, Prizren and Pec (all under the protection of various UN armed bodies)

Mission Objectives: To restore the country’s drug supply in an equitable and fair fashion. To determine functionality of care centers to help prepare and direct future aid work. To re-establish government/state-owned pharmacies. Mission Outcome Summary: WHO in association with PSF were responsible for distribution of the majority of drugs to state pharmacies. At the conclusion of the mission drugs were obtained by state-pharmacies free of charge and given to patients free of charge

Madagascar

Mission Overview: Initiated in August 2020, this mission was managed virtually due to COVID pandemic restrictions. The mission focused on a 54 bed, publicly funded hospital located in the Ifanadiana district in the south of Madagascar. The hospital services a population of approximately 200,000 and is part of a health care system model called PIVOT. PIVOT has collaborated with the Ministry of Madagascar Public Health to improve the public health system in order to provide quality health for the people in this district.

Mission Objectives: Support and guidance around inventory management including financial reports, optimization of workflows for narcotic and controlled substances and the development of a pharmacy training manual. Mission Outcome Summary: After successfully completing the mission objectives this virtual mission came to a close in the fall of 2023. The workflows developed during the mission will provide an ongoing framework for pharmacy inventory management within the hospital in Ifanadiana.

Benin

Mission Overview: There have been multiple missions in Benin. Missions were carried out from 2016 to 2018 through collaboration with the Saint-Camille Association, an African charitable organization of services for the mentally ill. From 2018-2019 two missions at the Kétou Health Center in the Department of Health of the Plateau region. Subsequently, missions were completed in February 2020 by three different teams in each of the following regions: Pobè, Adja-Ouèrè and Ikpinlè.

Mission Objectives: To evaluate health center needs regarding stock management and medication in order to improve overall workflow. Mission Outcome Summary: Redevelopment of the pharmacy according to WHO standards was achieved at each site. Tools were developed including task lists, documentation processes, and procedures for maintaining medication integrity. The missions were placed on hold and then subsequently closed when onsite visits were suspended in 2020.

Haiti

Mission Overview: Since November 2016, eight missions have taken place in Haiti as part of a collaborative initiative between PSF Canada and the local pharmacy team at Bernard Mevs Hospital (HBM). Missions have also been completed at the Notre-Dame de Lourdes Health Center (2013-2015) and the Gressier Health Center (2016-1018).

Mission Objectives: The missions focused on supporting existing pharmaceutical operations, expanding and improving workflow, and improving medicine management and distribution.

Mission Outcome Summary: All objectives were met. Although offshoot objectives were considered, the inability to sustain virtual communications coupled with ongoing political unrest, PSF Canada officially closed the Haiti mission in 2023/2024.

Uganda

Mission Overview: In 2009, PSF Canada was contracted by the Teasdale-Corti Foundation and the Lacor Hospital executive team to provide pharmacy support, knowledge exchange, and technical assistance. Missions were conducted from 2010-2015.

Mission Objectives: Implementing the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP)2008 Basel Statements for Hospital Pharmacy Practice within the Lacor Hospital Department of Pharmacy.

Mission Outcome Summary: From 2009 to 2015, the number of fully achieved (status of “met”) FIP Basel statements climbed from 18 (24%) to 44 (59%). 14 statements achieved the status of “partially met”, increasing the success of the mission. The number of “not applicable” statements was reduced from 18 (24%) in 2009 to 13 (17%) in 2015.

Published article: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5358057/

Completed Missions