Sustainable Access to Antimicrobials; A Missing Component to Antimicrobial Stewardship-A Tale of Two Countries.

Antimicrobial stewardship encompasses a wide range of processes and interventions designed to ensure that antimicrobials are used in the most effective manner. An important, but often neglected process to include is medicine procurement within hospitals, as the untimely administration of antimicrobials has a direct impact on patient care and antimicrobial resistance. A tender system (an open Request for Proposal, RFP) in South Africa is used in the procurement process to supply medicines and pharmaceutical supplies, whereas in the United States, each hospital is responsible for their own procurement processes.