A Survey on Current Scenario of the Model Pharmacies and Model Medicine Shops in Chittagong, Bangladesh

Abstract

Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Bangladesh, has approved the classification of all private retail drug outlets into two types, pharmacy and medicine shop. As per directorate general of drug administration, Bangladesh, a model pharmacy has to maintain some rules and regulations. It clearly declares and acknowledges that safeguarding the public interest is the foremost compelling reason for regulating the practice of pharmacy and the distribution of drugs and related devices. This study suggests that the model pharmacies are operating in accordance with the guidelines proposed by Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA), Bangladesh. There are many standards present for the establishment and operation of model pharmacies such as standards of personnel, standards of premises, dispensing, storage of medicine, hygiene, record keeping and documentation, disposal of damaged or expired medicines, pricing of pharmaceuticals, reference and materials, offenses and penalties etc. All the data had been collected by providing questionnaires to various model pharmacies in the Chittagong city. The area of the model pharmacies should be 300 square feet but many of them are not maintaining it. In terms of the physical conditions, the results were satisfactory except the less availability of a separate patient counseling room and adequate seat for the patients; storage conditions of the medicines were found satisfactory. None of the model pharmacies possessed the Adverse Drug Reaction (ADR) reporting form and none of them had reported a single ADR since its establishment. Records of the all the medicines dispensed to the patients were kept in a very few of the model pharmacies and a few of them only kept the records of antibiotic.