PHARMACISTS are being burdened with administrative and logistics jobs that is affecting their skills and could lead to prescription errors, according to an expert.
Health Ministry’s Pharmacy and Drug Control’s former director Sahar Al Qahtani said pharmacists were juggling multiple jobs daily rather than focusing on their actual work.
“They are drawing up rosters, checking stocks of medicines, filling forms and doing other administrative work rather than using their knowledge to learn about new medicines,” said Ms Al Qahtani.
“I can’t blame the pharmacists because they are under pressure to complete multiple tasks.”
She was speaking to the GDN on the sidelines of a national pharmaceutical updates workshop held at the Sheraton Bahrain Hotel yesterday.
The one-day event was held under the patronage of Health Ministry’s Under-Secretary Dr Waleed Al Manea and attended by pharmacists from the private sector.
Ms Al Qahtani said it was imperative for a pharmacist to know the journey of a drug – right from the time it leaves the manufacturer to the time it is administered to a patient.
“One important factor is that the National Health Regulatory Authority (NHRA) forces pharmacists to undergo at least 25 hours of training annually in order to renew their licences.
“There is a clear shortage of staff in this field and salaries are the lowest among the region, which needs to be addressed in order to attract good pharmacists,” she pointed out.
“They are under immense pressure and this could result in medication error creeping in; this happens all over the world due to the existence of lookalike drugs, or similar sounding names.”
Ms Al Qahtani added that the barcode system for all imported medicines to be introduced next year will not only tackle the issue of counterfeit drugs but reduce the burden on pharmacists.
“It will help deal with medication errors as well,” she said.
The barcode will feature a serial number unique to Bahrain that will help track a specific drug from the factory and can provide key information such as the manufacturer’s name, date of production, expiry date and other important details.
“Bahrain is free of counterfeit drugs due to strict checks in place,” said Ms Al Qahtani.
Workshop chairman Dr Assaad Al Dafter said the aim was to educate pharmacists about the drugs registration process.
He further said one of the topics discussed during the workshop yesterday was the rampant abuse of antibiotics in Bahrain.
“Antibiotics should only be taken when it is prescribed by a doctor and it’s not right for even pharmacies to sell them without a prescription.”
Dr Al Dafter, who is a consultant for internal medicine at Noor Specialist Hospital, said there was no shortage of medicine in Bahrain.
“We don’t have a shortage of medicine in Bahrain because there is a national plan in place for all hospitals to ensure there is enough stock of drugs including life-saving medicines.”
He said painkillers and diabetes drugs were among the highest consumed in Bahrain.
The Cabinet in July allocated BD15 million for the urgent purchase of more than 650 types of medicines, the equivalent of four months’ stock, following concerns over a lack of availability of certain drugs.
An order to review management procedures at Salmaniya Medical Complex and health centres was ordered by His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa after reports of the medicines shortage emerged.
Meanwhile, the NHRA licensed a total of 568 pharmacists from January until June this year, 104 of which were new applicants, while the rest were renewals.
The health regulator last year registered 1,331 pharmacists and 305 pharmacy technicians.
The authority’s updated list also shows that 152 licensed pharmacies and 43 hospital pharmacies are operating in the country.
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