E-drug: Equitable distribution of pharmaceutical services
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Dear e-druggers
In Uganda we are currently urgently overhauling and updating
medicines control and pharmaceutical professional practice legislation
in order to:
a) take account of the many political, administrative and professional
changes which have occurred since the original legislation was
introduced
b) improve professional pharmaceutical services
c) protect the patient/public
d) curb increasing abuses in medicines handling and use
Currently retail pharmaceutical services are provided through
pharmacies (supervised by pharmacists) and drug shops (supervised
by drug sellers, including dispensers/ pharmacy technicians and nurses
with drug handling training) - unlike pharmacies the latter are not
supposed to dispense and sell prescription medicines - but often do,
exploiting legislative and capacity deficiencies in the regulatory system.
For commercial reasons pharmaceutical outlets have become
concentrated in urban centres (especially in the capital Kampala) and
even within specific localities of such centres. This has led to a bizarre
situation where a single street may contain many pharmacies and drug
shops, some even next to each other!
This not only causes intense competition with consequent 'cutting of
professional corners' to maintain a competitive advantage but also
means that other parts of the country (especially rural areas and to a
lesser extent other smaller urban centres) are left deficient or
completely lacking in pharmaceutical outlets.
To guide our efforts to rationalize the distribution of pharmaceutical
outlets and improve the equity of access to pharmaceutical services
throughout the country we would be most interested to learn of
initiatives, incentives, controls, etc. which have been successfully
introduced to address this issue in other countries, particularly (but not
exclusively) in Africa.
We would also appreciate guidance on what would be regarded
(internationally?) as an acceptable ratio of pharmacists/population or
retail (community) pharmacies/population.
Chris Forshaw
Danida Pharmaceutical Adviser
Uganda Health Sector Programme Support
Ministry of Health
c/o Royal Danish Embassy
PO Box 11243, Kampala, Uganda
Tel: (+256) 77 76 01 76 (mobile)
Tel/fax: (+256) 41 34 37 50 (residence)
chris.uhssp@utlonline.co.ug
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