DOCUMENTATION required for bringing medications, medical supplies, and medical equipment
(please click here for a printable PDF version)
All medications and medical supplies that have an expiration date must have at least 6 months expiration date remaining after the date of your arrival in Nicaragua. Proper documentation must be presented to MINSA (Ministry of Health) before medications can enter Nicaragua or before medical professionals can practice. El Ayudante has a great working relationship with MINSA in Leon and Matagalpa. MINSA suggests ministry sites and often ministers with our teams. In 2008, there has been a medical fair high in the mountains of Matagalpa and also in a reparto in Leon. MINSA officials and local doctors and medical personnel have joined El Ayudante and our mission teams on both days.
The documentation that a team leader must submit is very specific. The team leader is responsible for collecting and e-mailing all the medical documentation to billcox@nicamissions.com. If doctors or several people are gathering supplies and typing documentation, everything must be e-mailed to the team leader and the team leader must e-mail the documentation. All the medications/medical supplies must be combined on one spreadsheet with the value of the total list given at the bottom. Please hold your information until it can all be sent at the same time. Here is a checklist of the documentation that is required no later than 3 weeks prior to your arrival date:
- One Excel spreadsheet with all medicines (prescription and over-the-counter), medical supplies, and medical equipment. If medical equipment will be carried back to the States, put these in a separate category at the bottom with a note that these instruments will be used while in Nicaragua but will be returned to the States. Please do not SCAN anything onto your Excel document. Everything must be typed. Documentation from Map, Blessings International, etc. will not be accepted; it must be retyped on a consolidated spreadsheet. Here is the required format of the Excel sheet:
- At the top of the Excel sheet, list the following information:
- NAME OF CHURCH OR SPONSORING ORGANIZATION:
- ARRIVAL DATE:
- DEPARTURE DATE:
- TEAM LEADER:
- FLIGHT NAME, NUMBER, AND TIME OF ARRIVAL:
- FLIGHT NAME, NUMBER, AND TIME OF DEPARTURE:
- LIST OF MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS WITH SPECIALTY LISTED:
- TEAM ROSTER (names only):
- MINSA now requires a Letter of Donation from the donor of the medications. It is best for this letter to be from your church, university, or ministry. A letter in English and one in Spanish is required. To make this process easier for everyone, we have created a form letter. These letters need to be on your church, university, or ministry letterhead and personally signed by an official of the organization. Here are links with the form letters. Each link has 2 letters—one in English and one in Spanish. Please revise the letters, cut and paste onto letterhead, print, sign, scan, attach to an e-mail, and send to billcox@nicamissions.com.
TEAMS WITH MEDICAL PERSONNEL
TEAMS ONLY BRINGING MEDICATIONS/MEDICAL SUPPLIES
- Each medical professional desiring to practice while in Nicaragua (MDs, nurses, etc.) must submit a copy of the medical license and specialty to their team leader for submission. Medical students are not authorized to practice medicine. They should NOT be listed as a medical professional. They can assist the MDs—like any other non-medical team member. These licenses need to be scanned either as a JPEG or TIFF file and need to be downsized to less than 1MB before e-mailing.
After all your documentation is received in Nicaragua, our staff must work through local doctors and the local MINSA to prepare the proper paperwork for the national MINSA in Managua. A letter must be obtained from a delegate of the MINSA in Leon and Matagalpa stating that the team is coming to provide services in the Leon/Matagalpa area. This paperwork must be hand delivered to MINSA in Managua. After the paperwork is processed, El Ayudante must return to MINSA in Managua to obtain a letter for your medications to clear customs at the airport.
When this procedure is followed, the team is escorted through customs.
After the team leaves, El Ayudante is required to submit a report to the Ministry of Health stating the number of patients treated and the prescriptions that were distributed. If medications are left, they must be donated to a medical doctor or hospital. Omar must obtain a letter from the benefactor stating that they received the prescriptions.
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