Outcomes of pharmacy facility inspections: implications on pharmaceutical services

Abstract

Good Pharmacy Practice (GPP) ensures access to quality medicines, a well-trained and adequate workforce of health professionals, and affordable healthcare. The Namibia Medicines Regulatory Council ensures the sale of medicines and the premises in which such sales are carried out comply with the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act of 2003. The purpose of this study was to report facility inspection outcomes. This was a retrospective review of inspection records archived over a period of 5 years (2017–2021) by the Namibia Medicines Regulatory Council. Compliance by facilities to 13 indicators as stipulated in the Namibia Medicines Regulatory Council inspections checklist adopted from international GPP guidelines was the main measure of outcomes. Results were summarized using descriptive statistics such as median, range, and percentages in R. The Mann–Whitney U test was used to compare medians. General compliance by community pharmacies (operated by pharmacists) was statistically higher (P = .0043) than dispensaries at clinics (mostly operated by nurses) with median (range) values of 84% (30.8–100) and 38% (0.0–100), respectively. There was an improvement in compliance over the 5 years for both pharmacies and clinics. The Ministry of Health & Social Services should implement policies that will ensure appropriately trained pharmaceutical cadres are stationed at all levels of the healthcare system to improve the delivery of pharmaceutical services. In addition, more inspectors need to be recruited for more frequent inspections.