Healthcare Supply Chain Efficacy as a Mechanism to Contain Pandemic Flare-Ups: A South Africa Case Study

Background

Many healthcare institutions, particularly in developing countries, found it exceedingly difficult to manage the pandemic, mainly due to a shortage of human and health resources, such as ventilators and nebulizers (Bhaskar et al., 2020; Park et al., 2020). In addition, funding and sourcing the vaccines proved problematic, leading to delayed vaccination in most developing countries (Department of Co-Operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, 2020; Edholm et al., 2022; Statista, 2023). The existing healthcare supply chain systems proved inefficient due to an imbalance between supply and demand (Bhaskar et al., 2020; Singh et al., 2021). The following sections elaborate on three essential concepts—the supply chain overview, supply chain operation reference (SCOR) model, and healthcare supply chain—to facilitate an understanding of the application and effectiveness of the healthcare supply chain systems implemented by the South African government.