Abstract

Fawzi Thomas*, Joseph Sam Kanu, Onome T. Abiri, Thomas A. Conteh, James P.Komeh, Mohamed Sesay, Jennet Buck and Joy B. Johnson

ABSTRACT

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as “A state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing, and not merely the absence of infirmity. Donald Acheson in 1988 defined public health as: “the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting, protecting and improving health through the organized efforts of society”. Community pharmacists are the health professionals most accessible to the public (WHO 2019). They supply medicines in accordance with a prescription or, when legally permitted, sell them without a prescription. In addition to ensuring an accurate supply of appropriate products, their professional activities also cover counselling of patients at the time of dispensing of prescription and non-prescription drugs, providing drug information to health professionals, patients and the public, and participation in health-promotion programs. They maintain links with other health professionals in primary health care WHO (2010). This study was conducted to assess the role of community pharmacists in public health to determine the level of community satisfaction on the services provided by community pharmacists, to determine community perception on the services provided by community pharmacists. Method: This study was a Descriptive Cross-Sectional study with a convenience sampling method of Pharmacist working in community pharmacies using a self-administered questionnaire giving a total of 125 community pharmacists working in this study setting. The study also included community people using a P value of 0.85 from a previous study by Al-Arifi MN, (2012) giving a sample size of 196. The outcome measured were demographics, role in public health services, perception and satisfaction. The data was analysed using SPSS and Microsoft Excel to produce Figures and Tables. Result: The results of the study points towards the fact that community pharmacists are contributing towards public health in the areas of screening and health promotion as 76(60.8%) are involved in promotion of smoking cessation, 61.2% are very involved promotion of weight management. 72.0% very involved in screening for hypertension whilst 64.8% are very involved in screening for diabetes. 64.8% of community people strongly agree that pharmacists are integral part of the health system.59.2% and 64.3% of community people strongly agree that community pharmacists should provide blood pressure and blood sugar monitoring services respectively. 71.2% are very involved in counselling on treatment for STDs whilst 47.2% are very involved in counselling on emergency and other contraception.