Compliance on Good Pharmacy Practice (GPP) Guideline in Community Pharmacy of Western Nepal, Nepalgunj

Background: Medicines are an essential component of health-care services. The community pharmacies have great value in terms of providing medicinal services to the general public. Now in Nepal, there is insufficient number of qualified and skilled personnel for pharmaceutical service. Good Pharmacy Practice guideline is a reference for the pharmacy professionals offering the pharmaceutical services to the patients in the different service settings. In accordance with this guideline, National Good Pharmacy Practice guidelines have been formulated, by the Nepal Pharmacy Council (NPC), which establishes certain standards of practice for community pharmacies in Nepal.
Objectives: The objectives of this study was to assess the compliance of “ National Good Pharmacy Practices Guidelines ” focus to nine parameters such as premises, personnel, quality policy, service strategy, documentation, procurement, storage, prescription handling and dispensing practice system among the community pharmacies inside the Nepalgunj Sub-Metropolitan city, western Nepal.
Methods: A cross-sectional, descriptive study was design using purposive sampling technique and data from 97 community Pharmacies inside Nepalgunj sub-metropolitan city were collected using closed ended Questionnaire related to above mentioned parameters. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire were determined by pilot testing in five community pharmacies of Kathmandu metropolitan city and Cronbach ’ s alpha. A frequency analysis and Student ’ s t test were performed for the statistical analysis through SPSS version 16.
Results: The overall compliance of GPP guidelines in Nepalgunj was found to be 12.71 (50.84%). The premises parameter was average with the score of 3.22 (64.40%). The Personnel parameter was poor with the score of 1.13 (37.60%). None of the community pharmacy have well document of quality policy as score null. Similarly, Services facilities was also below average with the score of 0.72 (36%) whereas, documentation system was good with score of 1.72 (86%). The procurement system and storage system was average with the score of 2.19 (73%) and 2.1 (52.50%) respectively. Unlike with this, Prescription handling and dispensing parameters were found to be poor with the score of 1.07 (35.60%) and 0.56 (28%) respectively. The average score on premises was not significantly impact (p> 0.05) by personnel. On another hand the average score on storage parameter and prescription reading, checking and providing appropriate counseling was found to be significantly (p< 0.01) higher for the presence of Pharmacist/Assistant pharmacist then orientation three months course for drug retailers pass (OCPs) and others indicating that score was closely associated with the personnel in the pharmacies.
Conclusion: It was found that most of community pharmacies in Nepalgunj Sub- metropolitan city failed to comply with the standards set mention in the National Good Pharmacy Practice (GPP). A stringent drug policy program based on local area and periodic investigations should be developed to ensure full phase implementation.

Author(s): Ashish Acharya, Dharma Prasad Khanal

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