‘Pharmacist-people ratio inimical to healthcare’
The Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana (PSGH) has said the pharmacist-to-population ratio, which stands at one pharmacist to 12,500 persons in the country, is poor and inimical to health care.
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According to the society, Ghana’s pharmacist-to-population imbalance was also far from the World Health Organisation’s recommendation of one pharmacist to 2,000 persons ratio.
The development, according to the society, is a serious drawback to achievement of key health sector targets and goals.
The President of the PSGH, Mr James Ohemeng Kyei, stated this at the launch of the World Pharmacists Day celebration at Amasaman in the Ga West Municipality yesterday.
This year’s celebration had the theme: “Access to pharmacists is access to health”.
The day, which falls on September 25, is celebrated globally every year by the members of the International Pharmaceutical Federation to highlight the important role pharmacists play in healthcare delivery.
As part of activities marking the event, the PSGH held a sensitisation exercise on Ebola and cholera in the municipality and also dewormed about 2,000 children.
Challenges
Highlighting the pharmaceutical care situation in Ghana, Mr Kyei said pharmacists were needed to ensure that patients received more than just the dispensing of their medications. However, he said, the limited access to pharmacists was not helping Ghanaians to reap the full benefits of pharmaceutical expertise.
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He mentioned urbanisation, weak regulations and lack of public education and awareness as some of the challenges hindering access to quality and professional pharmaceutical services in the country.
“Many rural and even suburban folks are receiving and taking all sorts of substances as remedies for all sorts of conditions without the necessary pharmaceutical care and support,” he said.
Mr Kyei, therefore, recommended to the government, as a matter of urgency, to take steps to ensure that every district in the country was serviced by at least two pharmacists in both private and public facilities, the first step in increasing access to pharmacists and pharmaceutical care throughout the country.
Proposal
Mr Kyei further underscored the need for the government to adequately resource the Food and Drugs Authority and the Ghana Pharmacy Council to enable them to perform their roles effectively.
On fake and substandard drugs, the president said the society had collaborated with its partners, mPedigree Network and PopOut.com, to undertake an initiative to prevent fake and counterfeit drugs from entering the market.
He explained that the initiative, dubbed “Prevent”, was facilitated by a technology and was currently being piloted by six local pharmaceutical companies that had subscribed to it.
By the partnership with mPedigree Network, Mr Kyei said, medicines made and marketed by members of the PSGH had been given unique numbers covered by safe scratch ink, which could be sent by text to a code for verification at the dispensing point.
He added that the PSGH was also using social media platforms, including Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram to educate the public on counterfeit and substandard drugs.