The newspaper reports of medicine shortages and stockouts at Trinidad and Tobago’s public institutions led the procurement agency operating on behalf of the Ministry of Health, to implement strategies to reduce medicine shortages and stockouts. The study utilised a mixed-method (MM) quasi-experimental approach to describe the contextual factors that might have led to the interventions, examined the effectiveness of the interventions to effciently secure contracts for pharmaceuticals for adequate stock levels at Central Stores; and identified the facilitators and/or barriers to the interventions.

A concurrent embedded MM quasi-experimental pre-post-test research design was employed. The quantitative data (i.e. stock-level data) were analysed statistically and were given more significance in the analyses. Qualitative primary data derived from semi-structured interviews with managers, and the analysis of secondary data from government reports and company documents were analysed thematically to describe the contextual backdrop within which the interventions were implemented. Data integration occurred at the interpretation stage.

Contextual factors including financing systems, information management, and human resources management led to the implementation of the interventions. After the interventions, medicine stockout levels were reduced from 31% to 12%; and shortage levels from 57% to 31% at Central Stores, while achieving an 88% medicine availability; however, the intervention-outcome relationship was also influenced by local contextual factors that acted as facilitators (e.g. new management).

In conclusion, the procurement agency can benefit from an investment in human resources for greater effectiveness and the right technology for greater effciency in data and inventory management.

Ms. ROSEANN ST. ROSE is the Chief Operations Offcer at the Community Hospital of Seventh-Day Adventists with direct responsibility for the pharmacy services. She is also a part-time external instructor at The University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT). She is a supply chain management practitioner with an undergraduate degree in Pharmacy and postgraduate qualifications in Health Administration, Global Health Procurement and Supply Chain Management, and Economic Evaluation of Pharmaceuticals and Medical Technologies. She has over twenty (20) years of pharmaceutical experience within the Caribbean.

Ms. St. Rose is the former Head of the Pharmaceutical Division at the National Insurance Property Development Company Limited (NIPDEC), which is responsible for the procurement, storage, and distribution of pharmaceuticals to public sector institutions on behalf of the Ministry of Health. She is experienced in the development of national and regional pharmaceutical systems with expertise in pharmaceutical pooled procurement, formulary development and evaluating health products.

Ms. St. Rose also developed the Turks and Caicos Islands’ first National Pharmaceutical Policy, was instrumental in the strengthening of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Pharmaceutical Quality Assurance System and has co-authored the paper entitled “Health Systems’ Resilience: COVID-19 Response in Trinidad and Tobago” which was published in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.