Open AccessHospital pharmacy services in teaching hospitals in Nepal: Challenges and the way forward
Author(s) -
P Ravi Shankar,
Subish Palaian,
Harish Singh Thapa,
Mukhtar Ansari,
Bharati Sharma Regmi
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
archives of medicine and health sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2321-6085
pISSN - 2321-4848
DOI - 10.4103/2321-4848.196212
Subject(s) - pharmacy , medicine , promotion (chess) , pharmaceutical care , hospital pharmacy , clinical pharmacy , quality (philosophy) , pharmacy practice , nursing , family medicine , medical emergency , philosophy , epistemology , politics , political science , law
In Nepal, a developing country in South Asia, hospital pharmacies in teaching hospitals faces a number of challenges. Design and location of the pharmacy is inadequate, the pharmacy is often rented out to private parties, there may be a lack of separation of outpatient and inpatient pharmacy services, medicines are not selected based on objective criteria, too many brands are stocked, pharmaceutical care services are not provided, and pharmaceutical promotion is not regulated within the hospital premises. Furthermore, there is often a lack of pharmacy management software to help dispensing, continuing pharmacy education is not provided, medicines are not compounded or packaged in house, there are problems with medicines availability and medicine quality, and drug utilization studies are not linked with initiatives to promote the rational use of medicines. In this article, the authors examine these challenges and put forward possible solutions