An evaluation of the adequacy of pharmaceutical services for the provision of antiretroviral treatment in primary health care clinics

Abstract

StandardsPrimary health care Objective: The objective of the study was to evaluate the adequacy of pharmaceutical services for the provision of ART in PHC clinics.Method: A quantitative descriptive study was undertaken in 20 (43%) randomly selected, eligible clinics in the uMgungundlovu district of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.Results: Clinics used allocated medicine rooms for storing medication, as there were no pharmacies. Problems identified were: insufficient storage space (50%; n ¼ 10); inadequate security (40%; n ¼ 8); poor air conditioning (20%; n ¼ 4), and functional stock-outs of essential drugs (80%; n ¼ 16). Professional nurses performed the tasks of managing drug supply and prescribing and dispensing medication as there were no pharmacists or pharmacist's assistants in these clinics. Peer review under responsibility of Johannesburg University. H O S T E D BYh e a l t h s a g e s o n d h e i d 2 0 ( 2 0 1 5 ) 8 3 e9 0http://dx

Different models of pharmaceutical services and care in primary healthcare clinics in the Eastern Cape, South Africa: Challenges and opportunities for pharmacy practice

“…Additionally, in both Clinics N and PA, the need for more support in medicine supply management was expressed. Crowley and Stellenberg 41 state that because of nurses having an increased workload, they need to be adequately supported such that they can provide adequate pharmaceutical services for patients. Similarly, Osman 40 notes that indirectly supervised pharmacist’s assistants within PHC settings often find supply management challenging as a result of not having a firm grasp of supply management skills (involving ordering or budget utilisation).…”

Supporting the revision of the health benefits package in Uganda: a constrained optimisation approach

“…The acute shortage of health workers in many sub-Saharan African countries(36) means that gaps in workforce size and composition are often filled through task-shifting, particularly to nurses(37,38). In order to capture this, we consider a scenario under which nurses are able to substitute for nutrition officers and pharmacists, implying that the nutrition officer and pharmacist time required to deliver interventions is allowed to be converted to nurse time.…”

Supporting the revision of the health benefits package in Uganda: A constrained optimisation approach

“…The acute shortage of health workers in many sub-Saharan African countries (World Health Organisation, 2021) means that gaps in workforce size and composition are often filled through task-shifting, particularly to nurses (Crowley and Stellenberg, 2015;Ugochukwu et al, 2013). In order to capture this, we consider a scenario under which nurses are able to substitute for nutrition officers and pharmacists; we assume that the nurse time required to deliver interventions is the same as that of nutrition officers and pharmacists.…”