In recent years, the healthcare segment has been the focus of discussions by service providers and logistics and supply chain professionals. This special attention has its well-founded motivations. The health market is one of the only ones that is expected to grow even during periods of crisis, mainly because its growth is more related to the aging of the population than to income growth.
Figure 1 – The healthcare market is one of the few that is growing even in times of crisis
Source: Schaeffer Medicines
Of course, the growth can be more or less accentuated depending on income and government investments in the segment, however, the increase in volume should occur, as was noticed last year and has been noticed this year.
In this context, some issues regarding the logistics of medicines and other health items must be evaluated and improved in order to avoid ruptures in the chain and loss of products that can cause not only financial losses, but also loss of life.
The most critical points with regard to medication logistics in Brazil are “cold logistics”, the high value of products, high fractional deliveries and hospital logistics.
The availability of refrigerated and temperature-controlled vehicles is a growing concern for this segment, which envisions a future with more biological drugs that require cold to remain suitable for use.
In Brazil, a small portion of the fleet of large carriers is owned, with around 70% subcontracted. Therefore, difficulties in investing to adapt the fleet exist and have been restrictive for increasing availability.
Corroborating with the difficulty of investment by self-employed / aggregated drivers, is the high value of the cargo. In addition to making the investment in the vehicle, the driver needs to have his profile approved by the risk managers for handling medication, given that these are products that are highly targeted by gangs.
Not only the driver profile restriction, but the total value of the loads to be moved are also limited by risk issues. This limitation causes the occupancy of vehicles to be greatly impaired, reaching occupancies of around 30%.
However, the high fractionation of cargo is not only the fault of the high rates of cargo theft in Brazil, pharmacies, hospitals and distributors seek to buy the smallest necessary batches of each drug due to capital constraints.
Added to the capital restriction of the growing number of SKUs and the high specificity of use of each drug, there is difficulty in consolidating the load and makes demand forecasting and inventory management more complex.
This situation has generated a greater need for professionals specialized in logistics and supply chain, reinforced by the fact that in the health sector a large part of these activities are carried out by doctors and pharmacists.
The country's large hospitals have invested in the logistics and supply chain front, seeking specialized professionals and including the availability of medicines as an essential part of the hospital's operation, not only in the hospital's central stock, but also for each pharmacy and bed.
Despite this direction in the country's large hospitals, there is still a long way to go for this to also occur in smaller and public hospitals, reducing costs, losses and, mainly, shortages of medicines.
Gisela Mangabeira de Sousa
https://ilos.com.brGisela Sousa is Executive Partner and Senior Manager of Consumer Goods at ILOS. She has already participated in several projects associated with logistics and supply chain for large companies. She has extensive experience in the topic of sustainability in supply chain / reverse logistics and in logistics and supply chain for the healthcare sector. She holds a degree in civil engineering with national and international specializations in logistics, supply chain and operations.
