Chemotherapy supply chain safety: current data from public oncology centers in Morocco

Abstract

Introduction: Since 2006, Morocco has been involved in care development for cancer patients, through regionalization of oncology centers, setting up of a program for cancer prevention, control, and treatment, finally by ensuring the quality of treatment. Chemotherapy is a risk-complexed process because of involving many health professionals. Our objective is to focus on the current state of public oncology hospitals and evaluate the chemotherapy process. Methods:An anonymous questionnaire was sent to 12 public centers by e-mails. It contains 4 items that establish chemotherapy process starting by receiving and storage of anticancer drugs, pharmaceutical validation of therapeutic protocols, until the administration of chemotherapy as well as the management of medical waste and expired medications. Results: Results showed that public regional centers represent 58.4% of participating centers, and university hospital centers represent 41.6%. Three quarters (73.3%) of hospital pharmacies have enough and appropriate receiving space. Sixty percent of pharmacist did not do any training to receive anticancer drugs. Oncology treatment protocols received in 53.3% of hospitals are not computerized. Biological data for pharmaceutical validation are not available on chemotherapy protocol in 73% of cases. All participating centers in the study confirmed that they have subcontracting contracts with companies specialized in the management of expired anticancer drugs and chemotherapy waste. Conclusion:Our study has shown that much effort has been made concerning the provision of oncology centers in several regions of the kingdom, anticancer drugs compounding centralization, and establishment-quality procedures that accompanied the chemotherapy process.