Dear E-drug list subscribers
Sorry to bother you again. We have received a good many reactions (thank you)
to our first posting. We have been requested to specify what we mean by
community pharmacies.
Here it is:
We are working with the development of concept of a community pharmacy in
Nicaragua. The problem is that there are populations in rural areas who do not
have access to getting the drugs they need because the private sector does not
establlish pharmacies in such areas for obvious reasons and the coverage of
the public sector is insufficient.
Drugs available need to be accompanied by the corresponding "clinical"
competence for diagnosis and "prescription". Normally there are four levels of
"prescribers": doctors, nurses, community health worker, the patient. There
are other possibilities for drug outlets such as small general dealers in
Nepal.
If the "clinical" skills are not available it is possible to upgrade such
skills in training programmes such as what they have done in Nepal.
For us a "Community Pharmacy" is a normally small pharmacy with an explicit
social mission.
In order to achieve this mission it has to store and dispense a range of drugs
(prescription and OTC) (and possibly other products) which respond to the
prevailing health problems and which tally with available "clinical"
competence of health workers, other specially trained personal or the
knowledge/skills of the patient.
The community pharmacy can be owned by the community, by the Ministry of
Health, by an NGO.
The pharmacy will sometimes have to operate without a pharmacist and will
under such circumstances be managed by a dispenser under supervision of a
pharmacist.
In an urban setting a pharmacy will have the purpose of selling low priced
drugs.
I understand that there are different definitions of the concept of a
community pharmacy according to local circumstances.
We are very interested in hearing from people with experience in this area.
Best regards
Ole Frank