A comparative analysis of the private and public medical commodity supply chains in the Upper East Region of Ghana

This paper compared the perceptions of senior management staff of public and private medical commodity supply chains, using a concurrent mixed method research design to determine if differences existed in the factors affecting the medical commodity supply chains in the Upper East region (UER) of Ghana. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected respectively, using purposive sampling, from 172 senior management staff of public and private healthcare facilities and six senior management officials from the central medical stores, regional medical stores and other key staff of both medical commodity supply chains in the region. The study found that private medical commodity chains had better medical commodity availability than public chains. It also found that significant differences existed between public and private healthcare facilities regarding the availability of medical commodities. No significant differences however existed for in-vehicle security, cold chain facilities, pilferage, communication of stock-out information, transport availability and vehicle maintenance practices.