Perceptions of Pharmacy Owners and Drug Inspectors about the Storage of Medicines on Required Temperature Inside the Pharmacy Outlets in Rural Areas of Sindh, Pakistan

Volume 6 Issue 3 August - October 2016

Research Paper

Perceptions of Pharmacy Owners and Drug Inspectors about the Storage of Medicines on Required Temperature Inside the Pharmacy Outlets in Rural Areas of Sindh, Pakistan

Nadir Suhail*, Sumera Aziz Ali**, Savera Aziz Ali***, Saleem Iqbal****, Yousaf Memon*****, Mohammad Masood Kadir******

* Research Associate, Department of Pediatrics, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.

**-***** Senior Instructor, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.

*** Registered Nurse, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.

**** Physician and Epidemiologist, Aga Khan University, Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan.

****** Professor and Public Health Specialist, Department of Community Health sciences, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.

Suhali, N., Ali, S., Ali, S.A., Iqbal, S., Memon, Y., and Kadir, M.M. (2016). Perceptions of Pharmacy Owners and Drug Inspectors about the Storage of Medicines on Required Temperature Inside the Pharmacy Outlets in Rural Areas of Sindh, Pakistan. i-manager’s Journal on Nursing, 6(3), 17-26. https://doi.org/10.26634/jnur.6.3.8258

Abstract

Effectiveness of medicines can be ensured by appropriate storage and management at different places in the pharmacies or hospitals. Knowledge about proper storage of medicines at required temperature in community pharmacies is not enough, particularly of the stakeholders dealing with medicines. Thus, it is important to know the perceptions of the stakeholders dealing with medicines about the proper storage of medicines on the required temperature. This research gives an in-depth understanding of storage practices of community pharmacy owners from retailer perspective as well as from regulatory authority perspective. Thus the objective of this study was to explore perceptions of pharmacy owners and drug inspectors about the storage of medicines on required temperature (< 25 °C) inside the pharmacy outlets in rural areas of Sindh, Pakistan. Exploratory cross sectional study design was used to conduct this study from August 2013 to August 2014. The pharmacy owners of two talukas and drug inspectors of Sindh province were selected consecutively and by snowball technique respectively for in-depth interviews. We conducted 16 in-depth interviews with community pharmacy owners working in two talukas of district Thatta . We also conducted 7 indepth interviews with the drug inspectors working in Sindh Province. Analysis of qualitative data was done after reading the transcribed data several times. All the data was analyzed manually and using inductive approach; thematic analysis was done after summarizing data and coding for past five years or more. The average age of participants ranged from 35- 59 years. Four themes emerged out of the analysis of the qualitative study. These themes included the change of properties and state of medicine, modifications in the architecture of the buildings, defining the locations to construct the pharmacy buildings and barriers in improving the storage conditions. Furthermore, regulation of proper storage practice and importance of security was also narrated by the drug inspectors with more emphasis on budget re allocation to improve the storage practices of community pharmacies. We concluded that most of the stakeholders had knowledge about the storage practices and they were also aware of the barriers and problems faced at the community pharmacy level but unfortunately they were not empowered to do anything at their end. Multiple barriers including financial barriers, problems related to regulation and load shedding as narrated by stakeholders. Furthermore, stakeholders also suggested that there is a need to enforce existing legislation with ongoing training programs directed towards pharmacy owners and drug sellers.