80% of pharmacists at Level 4 hospitals are unqualified, untrained to discharge medicine – Survey

80 percent of pharmacists posted at Level four hospitals are unqualified, a new survey has revealed.

According to the survey released by the Yung Pharmacists Group (YPG) data from 538 Level Four showed that 70 percent of the aforementioned pharmacists were licensed but unqualified to dispense drugs.

The survey revealed last week indicated that for every ten Level Four hospitals eight of them were non-compliant with the Ministry of Health (MoH) regulations.

424 Level Four hospitals were found to be non-compliant. Out of the total number of hospitals, only 50 had met the required standards while 61 hospitals had no records.

The survey also disclosed that 71 percent of the pharmacists in the 80 Level Five hospitals investigated were unqualified to give drugs to patients.

56 hospitals were non-compliant, 5 had no records and the other three were caught operating with expired licences.

The survey disclosed that Nairobi county had the highest number of such faults at 19.4 percent, followed by Kiambu county at 7%, Nakuru and Kisumu at 4.3%, Kajiado and Mombasa at 4%, Wajir at 3.4%, Machakos, 2.4% and Nandi at 1.3%.

Similarly, the data released disclosed that hospitals did not hire qualified pharmacists.

Cohen Andove, the chairperson of the Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya and lead author of the survey expressed disappointment in the findings noting that: “At most hospitals, the right professional for the role is not the one whose licence was used. Without professional input, patients are at risk,

“Drugs can turn into poison if mishandled. Medication mistakes are a leading cause of death, where patients – after proper diagnosis – receive wrong, inappropriate or inadequate medicines,”

He added: “The absence of pharmacists at these hospitals is a disservice to patients who do not get the required care. In this time when medication-related problems contribute to a significant number of deaths, it is important to have the pharmacist at the core of services at hospitals and wholesale practice as required by the law,”

According to him, some of the hospitals were failing to hire qualified experienced pharmacists on purpose since they owned the hospitals and their main interest was to create as many sales as they possibly can.

“Some of these hospitals own the pharmacies as well. It is in their conflicted commercial interest to drive sales as high as possible. Unfortunately, some prescriptions are more commercial than medical. A weak compromised non-technically proficient team is tied and can barely push back,” he added.