Abstract
Patient care in a community is becoming critical due to change in the impact of diseases on health. The provision of pharmaceutical care in a community will bring in positive changes in health care delivery. However, the pharmacist in developing countries has remained obscure in direct health- care of the patient. The main aim of this article is to reinforce the concept that there is a need to strengthen the basic pharmaceutical system in the Arab and African world before implementing any advanced clinical pharmacy or pharmaceutical care services to our communities. This article gives a good insight of where pharmacy practice in Arab, African and other developing countries globally stand in comparison to developed nations. A trend is apparent towards increased emphasis on clinical pharmacy practice. Country-specific pharmacy education and practice are discussed, analyzing the progress and opportunities available to pharmacy graduates. In addition, the future of pharmacy practice and clinical roles of hospital and community pharmacists were reviewed. It was realized that pharmacy practice and progress in many of the Arab and African countries were a mirror image of the status of the country itself. A new vision for the future of pharmacy practice needs to be considered and reorientation of pharmacy services in the existing system is needed. There should be a professional approach to speed up the rise towards practicing clinical pharmacy and pharmaceutical profession. This is achieved by interviewing patients, documenting their health details and educating them on methods of improving their health, including proper medication usage and lifestyle modification. Furthermore, colleges of pharmacy need to revise and update their curricula to accommodate the progressively increasing development in the pharmaceutical education and the evolving new roles of practicing pharmacists in their community.
Highlights
Public health as well as treating those who are ill are increasingly receiving the attention of many healthcare providers, including pharmacists
In Kenya, as in many African countries, the practice is economically driven with paper documented patient data, controlled prescriptions that could be obtained by bending the rules, with the most common over the counter drug (OTC) found to be antibiotics, and practice mostly geared towards dispensing and drug information; mode of payment being cash sales
Medical histories are available electronically [5]. This provides a good insight of where pharmacy practice in Arab, African, and other developing countries globally stand in comparison to developed nations
Summary
Public health (disease prevention and health promotion) as well as treating those who are ill are increasingly receiving the attention of many healthcare providers, including pharmacists. In the secondary care sector the majority of patients obtain their medication from the growing number of private community pharmacies. Medical histories are available electronically [5] This provides a good insight of where pharmacy practice in Arab, African, and other developing countries globally stand in comparison to developed nations. Nowadays, there is extensive accessibility of pharmacists during the day, and consultation can be obtained without appointment or charge [6]; regulatory changes in many of these countries are increasing the scope and number of medicines, directly available without a prescription; along with increasing the role of pharmacists in patient counseling and monitoring [7]-[10]. In spite of the growing interest that pharmacists in developing nations show towards more professional and extended practice roles, are pharmacists in the Middle East and Africa ready to extend their role? The main aim of this article is to reinforce the concept that there is a need to strengthen the basic pharmaceutical system in the Arab and African world before implementing any advanced clinical pharmacy or pharmaceutical care services to our communities
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