Assessment of the non-communicable diseases kit for humanitarian emergencies in Yemen and Libya

Emergency health kits are a vital way of providing essential medicines and supplies to health clinics during humanitarian crises. The WHO non-communicable diseases (NDCs) kit was developed 5 years ago, recognising the increasing challenge of providing continuity of care and secondary prevention of N...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	BMJ global health Vol. 7; no. Suppl 5; p. e006621
Main Authors:	Kiapi, Lilian, Alani, Ahmad Hecham, Ahmed, Iman, Lyons, Gemma, McLain, Grace, Miller, Laura, Darji, Bhavika, Waweru, Isaac, Aragno, Mauricio, Kisarach, Kelly, Zeleke, Mekuanint, Nagi, Nabeel, Jain, Vageesh, Slama, Slim
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	England BMJ Publishing Group Ltd 01-07-2022 BMJ Publishing Group LTD BMJ Publishing Group
Subjects:	Asthma Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease Continuity of care COVID-19 Data collection Delivery of Health Care Diabetes Emergencies Epilepsy Health care Health facilities Health services health services research Humanitarianism Humans Hypertension Interviews Knowledge Libya Medical personnel Mental disorders Mental health Noncommunicable Diseases Pharmacists Population Portable computers Practice public health Questionnaires Supplies Supply chains Training Yemen Libya Yemen Iraq Syria COVID-19 health services research diabetes public health
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Summary:	Emergency health kits are a vital way of providing essential medicines and supplies to health clinics during humanitarian crises. The WHO non-communicable diseases (NDCs) kit was developed 5 years ago, recognising the increasing challenge of providing continuity of care and secondary prevention of NCDs and exacerbations, in such settings. Monitoring and evaluation of emergency health kits is an important process to ensure the contents are fit for purpose and to assess usability and utility. However, there are also challenges and limitations in collecting the relevant data to do so.This Practice paper provides a summary of the key methodologies, findings and limitations of NCD kit assessments conducted in Libya and Yemen. Methodologies included a combination of semistructured interviews, surveys with healthcare workers, NCD knowledge tests and quantifying the remaining contents.The kit was able to support the vital delivery of NCD patient care in some complex humanitarian settings and was appreciated by health facilities. However, there were also some challenges affecting kit use. Some kit contents were found to be in greater or lesser quantities than required, and medicine brands and country of origin affected acceptability. Supply chains were affected by the humanitarian situations, with some kits being held up for months prior to arrival. Furthermore, healthcare staff had received limited NCD training and were unable to dispense certain medicines, such as psychotropics, at the primary care level. Further granularity of kit modules, predeployment facility assessments, increased NCD training opportunities and a monitoring system could improve the utility of the kits.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	2059-7908 2059-7908
DOI:	10.1136/bmjgh-2021-006621