Stockout

Why it matters

A patient who is diagnosed correctly and then sent home without treatment has received half a service. WHO and Health Action International surveys across 36 countries found that public sector availability of selected generic medicines averaged only 38% [1]. The Sustainable Development Goals now track availability directly: indicator 3.b.3 measures the proportion of facilities where at least 80% of a core set of 32 tracer essential medicines is available and affordable on the day of a visit [2].

Key points

• Stockouts are usually reported as the percentage of facilities, or of products, with no usable stock during a period. The Logistics Handbook recommends feedback reports showing the percentage of facilities experiencing a stockout at each level [3].
• Duration matters as much as frequency: a stockout lasting a day is a different problem from one lasting weeks.
• Causes are rarely single: late funding, orders calculated from incomplete data, irregular transport and records that do not match the shelf.
• Expired and unusable stock counts as no stock for the patient, which is why batch and expiry tracking belongs in the same system.

In Moana

The Moana Medical Supply System records every requisition, issue and delivery from warehouse to facility, so stock levels at each facility are visible to the level that resupplies it.

Sources

1. Essential medicines out of reach for most people, World Health Organization, 2008
2. SDG indicator 3.b.3 metadata: proportion of health facilities that have a core set of relevant essential medicines available and affordable, United Nations Statistics Division and World Health Organization, accessed 2026
3. The Logistics Handbook: A Practical Guide for the Supply Chain Management of Health Commodities, USAID DELIVER Project, 2011