Assessment of dispensing practices on prescription-only medicines in private retail pharmacies in Kawempe division

Abstract

Background: The global population is afflicted with several health challenges, numerous infectious diseases and severe painful conditions, and therefore, that calls for urgent medical treatment. In Uganda, Antibiotics, Antihypertensive, Antidiabetics and Narcotics are some of the prescription-only drugs according to the National Drug Authority and Act. The population's control of access to prescription drugs is a huge responsibility, which requires the participation of multiple stakeholders, such as the government, non-governmental organisations, and citizens of Uganda. There is little data regarding dispensing POMs among private retail pharmacies. The study assessed the dispensing practices of POMs in the private retail pharmacies in the Kawempe Division. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study design in which 204 healthcare workers were involved, questionnaires were used for data collection from the participants who consented in writing to participate. A random sampling technique was used, and data was analysed using SPSS software version 29. Results: The study revealed that a higher percentage of respondents employed at these retail pharmacies were female, had a diploma, many of the respondents were nurses, and those with experience of between 1 to 5 years constituted the majority. Majority of the respondents had good dispensing practices with a mean score range (4.0-5.0,103/204) and a few respondents had a low mean score range (1.0-2.9,45/204). Conclusion: There was a mix of adherence levels to key dispensing practices among pharmacy professionals, ranging from counselling patients on adverse effects and dosage instructions to ensuring the completeness of prescriptions and maintaining patient privacy. While there are areas of strength, such as high rates of instructing patients on dosage and frequency, and checking for the expiry date of medicines, there are also areas that require improvement, like dispensing drugs without a letterhead and counselling patients about adverse effects of drugs.