Presence of pharmacists providing pharmaceutical services in community

The research sort to assess the availability of pharmacist in retail/community pharmacies of Lusaka Zambia according to laid down regulations. Community pharmacies are the most accessible health care centres which provide affordable, efficacious, safe and cost effective health care to the communities they serve with/without appointments. Untrained personnel in community pharmacies put clients at risk of serious toxicities, prolonged recovery time, increased service costs and sometimes death and the lack of a pharmacist is an attributing factor. Therefore, the presence of a pharmacists is mandatory to ensure uninterrupted service provision. The main objective was to determine the presence of registered pharmacists providing pharmaceutical services in community pharmacies around Lusaka during the month of March, 2016. A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in Lusaka district of Zambia which was stratified into five (5) zones. Registered community pharmacies [N=87] within a 10KM radius from the central business district were selected for the study using stratified random sampling. Full-time pharmacists were not present in the majority of community pharmacies in Lusaka.