Assessment of the Role of Community Pharmacies in Diabetes Management in the Accra Metropolis

ABSTRACT
Some of the major challenges to diabetes management in Ghana are the availability of services and products for management at the primary health-care level. Community pharmacies belong to the private health sector, they operate at the primary health-care level and their functions and accessibility are critical in the management of diabetes. This study therefore sought to determine the range of services that community pharmacies provide in diabetes management, assess the availability of anti-diabetic drugs, self-care devices and monitoring services in these pharmacies and to identify the challenges to diabetes management in community pharmacies. This could serve as a basis for exploring the possibility of better engaging them in addressing some of the challenges to diabetes management.
Using a quantitative approach, this cross-sectional study selected 329 community pharmacies in the Accra Metropolis by simple random sampling and an interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from these pharmacies. Data was analyzed using STATA software version 14. The most important services community pharmacies in the Accra Metropolis provide are supply of anti-diabetic drugs (99.39%) and counselling on the use of drugs (91.77%). The availability of Metformin (98.48%) and Glibenclamide (94.83%) exceed the WHO benchmark of 80% whilst the availability of insulin (29.4%) was far below. The study concludes that community pharmacies play a very significant role in the supply of anti-diabetic drugs for the management of diabetes and recommends policy change and support for these pharmacies to play more significant roles in the diagnosis of the disease and early detection of complications associated with it.