Behind the counter: pharmacies and dispensing patterns of pharmacy attendants in Karachi (original) (raw)
Related papers
Quality of pharmacies in Pakistan: a cross-sectional survey
International journal for quality in health care : journal of the International Society for Quality in Health Care / ISQua, 2005
Objective. To estimate the proportion of pharmacies meeting licensing requirements and to identify factors associated with these pharmacies in urban Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
Dispensing of Medication Without Prescription in Karachi, Pakistan
International Research Journal of Pharmacy, 2016
Rational informed self-medication is an essential part of any health care system. This study was conducted to determine the drugs which dispensed without prescription and the nature and extent of self-medication purchases at community pharmacies in Karachi. The data were collected and recorded for different community pharmacies operating for 24 hours, or different timing schedule using a specially designed survey form. Out of the 50 pharmacy surveyed, most of the pharmacies dispensed the drugs without prescription. There were drugs which should be dispensed without prescription including antibiotic, anti-allergic, Analgesics/antipyretics and dermatological drugs. The study findings indicate the need to enforce the regulations governing the sale of drugs and the specification of drugs to be sold using prescription as well as to improve community pharmacy practice, to check the magnitude of self-medication, to check the sale of non-prescribed medicine per day and also examine which class of antibiotic or drug dispensed irrationally. The study also revealed the knowledge of the staff working and the person or pharmacist adherence to regulations.
ANALYSIS OF DISPENSING PRACTICES AT COMMUNITY PHARMACY SETTINGS IN AMBO TOWN, WEST SHEWA, ETHIOPIA
The purpose of the present study is to generate valuable data about overall dispensing practices available at the later settings in one of the largest town in Ethiopia; Ambo town. Descriptive cross sectional study was conducted at 15 community pharmacy settings found in the town from April to June 2014 including 255 clients. Dispensing practices were evaluated using WHO standards for dispensing. Data was analyzed using SPSS Version 20.0. Out of 18 dispensers working at these settings, only 3(17%) were pharmacists and surprisingly 5(27.8 %) were not professionally qualified (without having any college diploma or university degree). The average dispensing time obtained was 60 seconds. From the total of 225 clients visiting these settings, only 17 (7.6%) of them were found to be knowledgeable about drugs dispensed to them. Regarding adequacy of labeling, generic name, strength, dosage, and quantity of drugs were written on only 11.1%, 11.1%, 29.8% and 11.6% of the labels respectively. It was found that for more 90% of the clients, drugs were dispensed without checking patients’ identity like age. While for 6.7% wrong strength, 12% incorrect frequency and 24.4% incorrect total quantity were dispensed. Only dispensing spoon was available as dispensing aids at all settings. None of them were found to check the temperature of the refrigerator regularly & maintained with acceptable range. Generally, dispensing practices found at these pharmacy settings were mostly irrational. This could be ensured through the involvement of non-pharmacy professionals in dispensing, very short dispensing time, poor clients’ knowledge, poor labeling of medications, significant number of dispensing errors and unavailability of essential dispensing aids. So there is a need for urgent managerial and educational intervention to improve dispensing practices in the country and in the study area particularly.
Journal of University Medical & Dental College, 2021
BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE: Pharmacies play an important role in provision of health care to the community.The objective of the study was to explore the reasons for a variety of drugs sold without prescription for commonly presenting complaints in Rural and Urban Pharmacies of Faisalabad District. METHODOLOGY: This explanatory sequential mixed method design involved workers from twenty-five pharmacies from urban and rural areas of Faisalabad from February to July 2020. After obtaining informed consent, fifty pharmacy workers filled a pre-designed questionnaire (followed by twenty-five semi-structured, individual, face-to-face interviews. Quantitative data was analyzed via SPSS software and transcribed interviews were organized manually for data analysis. RESULTS: Response rate was 76.2%. As reported by the pharmacists,40% and 90% of urban and rural population respectively came to pharmacies for over-the-counter drugs. Fifty percent belonged to middle class among urban and 70% belonged t...
The role of pharmacists in developing countries: the current scenario in Pakistan
Human Resources for Health, 2009
During the past few years, the pharmacy profession has expanded significantly in terms of professional services delivery and now has been recognized as an important profession in the multidisciplinary provision of health care. In contrast to the situation in developed countries, pharmacists in developing countries are still underutilized and their role as health care professionals is not deemed important by either the community or other health care providers. The aim of this paper is to highlight the role of pharmacists in developing countries, particularly in Pakistan. The paper draws on the literature related to the socioeconomic and health status of Pakistan's population, along with background on the pharmacy profession in the country in the context of the current directions of health care.
A Literature Review: Pharmaceutical Care an Evolving Role at Community Pharmacies in Pakistan
Pharmacology & Pharmacy, 2013
The aim of this paper is to highlight the role of pharmaceutical care at community pharmacies in Pakistan. The paper draws on the literature related to current dispensing practices at community pharmacies in developing countries as well as in Pakistan. There are approximately 63,000 community pharmacies in Pakistan, and according to an estimate, 80% of the medicines are being distributed through this channel to majority of the population. They often lack adequate facilities, staffing and equipments. Absence of pharmacists and their roles being performed by the non-qualified personnel working at community pharmacies are a common practice. There are 8102 pharmacists who are categorized as a category, 31,000 pharmacy technicians categorized in B & C category in the country. There is a shortage of pharmacists who could be engaged for ensuring good pharmacy practices. There are only ten percent of the total pharmacists who work at community pharmacies in the country according to the Pharmacy Council of Pakistan. All kind of medicines are freely available irrespective of their status as prescription or over the counter drugs. The paper highlights that the professional role of pharmacist in hospitals and community pharmacies is switching from dispensing and sale of drugs, to patient counselling. But, the concept of pharmaceutical care at community pharmacies has not been acknowledged yet in Pakistan. The process of prescription handling is poor and patients are often treated without a proper prescription. Prescription validation, drug labeling and patient counseling are the missing components in effective patient management at the community pharmacies. The paper concludes that although laws exist, but due to lack of accountability and weak regulatory framework their proper implementation is not witnessed. Moreover, due to lack of research and evidence related to problems in dispensing practices in healthcare system of Pakistan, the counteractive actions for resolving these problems are limited.
2020
Introduction: Pharmacy has moved from dispensing to pharmaceutical care; pharmacists have a role in improving patient safety. Community and hospital pharmacy practice has a major impact on the health of the public. Standards of practice are not well defined and details of community pharmacy practice are unpredictable in Somalia and it is doubtful whether the practice is structured and follows prescribed standards. The resource availability profile has serious implications on the pattern of practice. The objectives of the present study were to identify routines activities performed in community and hospital pharmacies in Somalia and to determine the extent to which resource limitations affect the pattern of pharmacy practice. Methods: This study was a cross-sectional study conducted between October and December, 2019. It involved randomly selected 25 community pharmacies and 25 hospital pharmacies including the only 3 available public pharmacies in Mogadishu, Somalia. This study used a modified questionnaire based on current literature and it was designed to assess the respondents' demographics, resource availability of pharmacies surveyed and practice details of pharmacists. Pretesting of the questionnaire was done on 5 randomly selected pharmacies. Data were analyzed using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) version 20.0 software. Descriptive statistics were used to report pharmacy employees' demographics [frequency and percentages; mean ± standard deviation (SD)]. Results: 50 distributed survey instruments were filled. Data analysis showed that only 12% of the pharmacy employees were pharmacists and that 86% of pharmacy employees give prescription drugs to patients without a prescription. Fifty percent (50%) of pharmacy employees admitted they administer an injection to patients. The rate of incoming prescriptions to pharmacies was generally low with 44% of pharmacy premises claiming that they had never received any prescriptions from private hospitals. Sixty percent (60%) of pharmacists surveyed admitted making drug recommendations to patients irrespective of the nature of the drug. Most pharmacies in the study had equipment to measure blood pressure, check body temperature, screen for diabetes and malaria. However many of them lacked necessary types of equipment required to measure body mass index, weigh patients, screen for high cholesterol levels; also tools that could facilitate more accurate dosing e.g., tablet cutter and tablet crusher were absent in most pharmacies. Conclusion: This study showed that resource availability of surveyed community and hospital pharmacies was average but the pharmacy practice standards were poor. No statistical difference was observed between both facilities. Prescribing and recommending drugs to patients; giving prescription drugs without prescription; not counseling the patients about their medications; practicing pharmacy by non-pharmacists are all activities that could have a negative impact on public health. Continuing education would be essential for pharmacists and pharmacy employees in promoting good pharmacy practice; practicing pharmacy by only pharmacists is recommended to avoid improper pharmacy practice.
Prescription and dispensing practices in public sector health facilities in Pakistan: survey report
PubMed, 2004
Objectives: To gather information on existing prescription practices, dispensing practices and patient satisfaction in government health services of the NWFP, Baluchistan and Punjab province. Methods: A cross sectional study design was used for this purpose. Ten health care facilities were selected from each province keeping appropriate representation from first level health facilities, district health facilities and tertiary care hospital. Analysis of selected indicators was carried out on the basis of provinces, health facilities, gender and different age groups. Results: Documentation of 914 responses was completed from three provinces. Almost equal distribution of encounters was maintained representing different health facilities. Forty seven percent of encounters involved children under 15 years of age. Female patients comprised of 56% and the mean age of the entire sample was 26 years. The mean dispensing time was only 38 seconds, the mean consultation time was 1.79 minutes and the average number of drugs per prescription turned out to be 2.7 out of which only 1.6 drugs were being dispensed from the facility. More than half of the prescriptions contained antibiotics and 15% of patients were prescribed with injectables. Only half of the patients expressed satisfaction with their visit to health facility. Conclusions: Like many other developing countries, prescription and dispensing practices are not satisfactory in public sector health facilities of Pakistan. Appropriate and workable solutions need to be developed and implemented in the country to improve systems. Regular audits and qualitative studies should become part of the effort.
Community pharmacy practice in Pakistan
Objectives: This study was planned to determine the extent to which the role of a pharmacists is established in community pharmacies in Pakistan and to determine the need of qualified and experienced pharmacists in provision of healthcare at these medical stores or so called community pharmacies. Materials and Methods: A structured questionnaire was distributed to a random sample of 175 attendants at various medical stores located in different areas of Karachi with a response rate of 90.28%. Questionnaire consisted of 24 closed ended questions whose consistency and reliability were determined by Cronbach's alpha. Statistical analysis were done using SPSS (v.16.0) Results: The result shows that the average age of pharmacy attendant lies between 21 and 30 years. Only 9.49% of attendants have professional pharmacy education. It was noted that only 22.6% check prescriber signature before dispensing prescription, which is quite a low as compared with standard practice. Interestingly 57.6% attendants think that presence of qualified pharmacy at medical stores does not make any difference in the efficacy and the business of medical stores. Conclusion: This study concludes that the current status of community pharmacy practice is below par. There is a need to involve more pharmacists at community level and develop awareness programs to counter patients' routine drug issues and reducing the burden of disease from society.
International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy, 2011
Objectives The study aimed to assess and compare medication counselling and dispensing practices at community pharmacies in three major cities of Pakistan. Methods A total of 1113 patient dispenser interactions were observed from a randomly selected sample of 371 pharmacies by using convenient sampling technique in the three respective cities namely Islamabad (118), Peshawar (120) and Lahore (133). The data collection tool was adapted from WHO structure observation form and was modified according to the objectives of the study. Main Outcome Measures The process of prescription handling at community pharmacies in terms of patient dispenser interaction, prescription validation and medication counseling was assessed. The data was coded, entered and analyzed by using SPSS Version 16. Results A total of 1113 patient dispenser interactions were observed at the community pharmacies in the three respective cities namely Islamabad (n = 354), Peshawar (n = 360) and Lahore (n = 399). Out of 1113 patient/dispenser interactions the providers present at the community pharmacies were; pharmacist (degree of B-pharm/pharm D) 1.6% (n = 18), pharmacy assistant