Availability of Dispensing and Storage Facilities at Public and Community Pharmacies at Bahir Dar and Gondar Towns

Abstract

Background

The availability of various facilities that aid in providing expected services is necessary for the practice of pharmacy, which aims to make the best use of medications and other healthcare products and services. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the availability of dispensing and storage facilities at public and community pharmacies in Bahir Dar and Gondar towns.

Methods

In Gondar and Bahir Dar towns’ public and private pharmacies, a facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted from July 2023 to September 2023. All pharmacy areas that were open during data collection were included in the study. The frequency and percentage were calculated using descriptive statistics.

Results

From 239 pharmacies, 208 (87.0%) of them were open during data collection, and they are included in the study. The water supply and dispensing counter were available in the dispensing area in 79.3% and 60.1% of instances, respectively. They also had adequate room for storage (92.8%), dispensing (92.8%), and receiving (95.7%) of medicines. Additionally, about 98.1% of the facilities had shaded, ventilated, and dry areas. A therapeutic order was the most often used method (59.6%) for medication organization. Merely 1.9% of participants did not employ a strategy to arrange their medications. A refrigerator (88.0%), a refrigerator thermometer (91.3%), a spoon or spatula (81.3%), a separate storage facility (74.5%), a cold room (68.8%), a lockable cabinet (90.9%), a tablet counter (69.2%), and a fire extinguisher (safety device) (88%) were among the various storage equipment the majority of the pharmacies in the survey had. Nonetheless, air conditioning was absent from the majority (53.4%) of pharmacy facilities.

Conclusion

Few pharmacies need to make improvements to their facilities in order to encourage convenient drug storage and dispensing practices, even though the majority of the pharmacies surveyed had all the necessary equipment and infrastructure. In addition to initiating the pharmacies to provide good practices of dispensing and storage, facility-focused initiation and regulation should be obtained to ensure full availability of the facilities.

Keywords:

• availability
• Bahir Dar
• dispensing
• facilities
• Gondar
• pharmacies
• storage

Abbreviations

GPP, Good Pharmacy Practice; GDP, Good Dispensing Practices; GSP, Good Storage Practices.

Data Sharing Statement

The data sets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Ethics Approval and Consent to Participate

The study was approved and given ethical clearance by the College of Medicine and Health Science at the University of Gondar’s School of Pharmacy Ethical Committee. Every research participant was asked to provide written, informed consent. The participants were made aware of their complete right to withdraw from the study at any point while it was ongoing. All raw data were treated with strict confidence after the study was finished and data collection was completed. Every technique was used in compliance with all applicable rules and regulations.

Acknowledgments

First and foremost, I would like to acknowledge the University of Gondar School of Pharmacy for providing me with ethical clearance. I also extend our gratitude to the data collectors and participants in this study for their kind cooperation during the study period.

Disclosure

The author declares that there are not competing interests in this work.

Additional information

Funding

There are no sources of funding to declare.