Assessing the Need for Public Pharmacy Expansions: a Case Study on Kenema Public Pharmacies in Addis Ababa
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Date
2023-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Community pharmacies are the most accessible and convenient place for providing
preventive and curative health care services for local community. Public Pharmacies are
types of community pharmacies owned by government (public). According to
International Pharmaceutical Federation, the average population served by a pharmacy
could be used as an indication of a country’s community pharmacy infrastructure and
capacity. However, in Ethiopia, community pharmacies are underutilized resources with
a very high ratio of inhabitants per pharmacy. The purpose of this study was to assess the
need for public pharmacy expansions in Addis Ababa city, Ethiopia. A convergent
parallel mixed research approach with descriptive cross sectional study design was
implemented. Both quantitative and qualitative data was collected concurrently, analyzed
separately, and the results were mixed for data interpretation and analysis. To determine
the sample size, proportionate stratified random sampling design technique was used. The
study used quasi-structured questionnaire to collect data from participants working in
Kenema public pharmacy branches. Based in the results, the weekly average number of
customers for class A, class B and class C pharmacies was found to be 1848, 900 and
587, respectively. Similarly, the daily ratio of number of customers to pharmacy
personnel was 61, 46 and 43 for class A, class B and class C pharmacies, respectively.
The study disclosed that, the average dispensing time in the pharmacies was only 1.6
minutes (96 seconds). All most all the respondents agreed about the need of additional
KPP branches to serve the community in Addis Ababa City. Generally, this research
showed that, KPP has underutilized business opportunity, unsatisfied (unaddressed)
customer need and underrated community service role. Even though, KPP is playing a
crucial role in community pharmacy service, the number of branches is not sufficient to
address the need of community’s pharmacy service in Addis Ababa. Furthermore, the
current practice and service of KPP needs to be renovated to fit with the “good pharmacy
practices” standards. Therefore, the enterprise should take practical managerial decisions
to renovate and improve the pharmacy service. Relevant and reliable scientific research
should be also conducted for the enterprise’s further development & future actions