Essential Medicine
Community Medicine · Topic 19
Source: NMC CBME Curriculum 2024 · Volume II · Community Medicine · Topic 19 · combined PDF page 279
Practice questions
- Which statement best captures the central purpose of an essential medicines list?
- A district introduces a shorter prioritized medicine list. Which expected system benefit is most consistent with the evidence?
- A medicine is included in a national EML, but patients cannot obtain it at nearby facilities. Which conclusion is most appropriate?
- Which care plan best reflects appropriate use of an essential medicine?
- A health programme has selected medicines for its EML but has not addressed prescribing practices. What is the best interpretation?
- A facility has a medicine on its shelves, but its price is beyond what many patients can pay. Which access dimension is most directly deficient?
- A systematic review of Ethiopian health facilities reported pooled availability of generic essential medicines of 64% in public facilities and 54% in private facilities. Which interpretation is correct?
- In the Ethiopian systematic review, the median price ratio was higher in private than public facilities. What does this finding most directly suggest?
- A review of essential medicines in Ethiopia estimated that 62% of evaluated medicines were unaffordable. Which statement is supported by this result?
- A systematic review across African low- and middle-income countries reported pooled public-sector availability of 48.1% and private-sector availability of 70.3%. Which conclusion is justified?
- In the African review, availability of communicable-disease medicines in public facilities was 59.1%, compared with 37.4% for non-communicable-disease medicines. Which interpretation is most appropriate?
- The African review reported median affordability requirements of 2.1 days’ wages for acute-condition treatments and 6.4 days’ wages for chronic-disease treatments in the private sector. What follows from these estimates?
- A review of childhood cancer medicines in low- and lower-middle-income countries found national-list alignment with the WHO childhood cancer list ranging from 40% to 60%. Which statement best interprets this finding?
- In a review of childhood cancer essential medicines in low- and lower-middle-income countries, reported stock-out rates ranged from 17% to 100%. Which conclusion is best supported?
- A programme seeks to improve access to childhood cancer medicines in a setting with high costs and weak supply-chain management. Which response is most consistent with the review’s reported facilitators?
- A facility has a strong medicine list but recurrent shortages caused by poor supply-chain management. Which inference is most appropriate?
- Which statement about supplemental oxygen is supported by the reviewed literature?
- A resource-limited hospital is planning oxygen services. Which conclusion best reflects the evidence?
- A review of medicine access identifies inadequate availability and high prices. Which programme objective most directly addresses both problems?
- An analyst is comparing an international reference price with a facility’s price using a median price ratio. Which statement about the ratio is most appropriate?
- A patient can obtain a medicine, but the treatment course costs several days’ wages. Which interpretation best distinguishes the access dimensions?
- A clinic used 900 tablets of a medicine over the last 3 months. Assuming consumption remains constant and ignoring safety stock, how many tablets are needed for the next 2 months?
- A facility expects to use 240 units of an essential medicine per month. For a 3-month planning period, it has 180 usable units in stock and assumes no safety stock. How many additional units are required?
- A facility’s consumption-based estimate is calculated accurately, but the medicine remains frequently unavailable. Which interpretation is best?
- A district wants to use medicine-access findings from one country to predict exact availability in another country. What is the most appropriate caution?
- A procurement team proposes maintaining a limited selection of medicines to focus purchasing and storage. Which additional step is necessary for the policy to contribute to rational medicine use?
- A review finds that essential medicines are available but frequently unaffordable, especially for chronic treatment. Which conclusion best fits the evidence?
- Which bundle of actions is most consistent with improving essential-medicine access at primary health-care level?