Supply Chain Disruption in the Health Care During the Pandemic Period

Abstract

If we see, what came in short during COVID -19 was a major disruption in health facilities and a shortage of pharmaceuticals. The pandemic's severe lack of essential medical supplies created significant procurement difficulties in the healthcare supply chain (HCSC). The discussion on how to improve the supply chain in healthcare is picked up steam because maintaining the availability of such items during disruptions is essential. We provide factual data from a multi-level case study including nine hospital and medical supply manufacturing organisations throughout Andhra Pradesh. We looked into procurement-related ways to increase the availability of medical inventory based on resource dependence. Through semi-structured scheduled interviews, we obtained seven ideas on buffering approaches for changing resource dependencies and enhancing supply chain resilience in a pandemic. The remarkable COVID-19 epidemic has impacted every country, company, and supply chain. The pandemic put the healthcare system in crisis, with hospitals on the verge of closing due to capacity overflow, vital item supply chains disrupted, and federal and state authorities failing to take preventative measures. While contingency plans and stockpiles were in place for governments and private sector companies, the pandemic uncovered numerous significant supply chain weaknesses, including a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) and testing kits.