I've completed my first week of rotation already! Last week this time, I was on the plane to Frankfurt. Time really flies! Pharmacy is much different from that in the United States.
The pharmacy is open six days a week: M-F 7:30am-5:30pm and Saturday 8:30am-3:30pm. It is a mixture of a community setting and a commercial business center. In downtown Accra, there are about twenty pharmacies on one block which they call "Drug Lane." There are two medicine counter assistants (similar to technicians, but technicians are the terminology more so used for those that work in the hospital) and a pharmacist. Most people come into the pharmacy looking for something to treat fungal infections and malaria. They also come for herbal and vitamin supplements, as well as medicine to stimulate appetites.
The most surprising thing to me about how the pharmacy operates is that anyone can come in requesting a medication with or without a prescription! If a patient comes in with a prescription written for three medications and the pharmacy does not have one of three, the patient can go to the pharmacy next door (hence the name,"Drug Lane,") and look for the medication.
The pharmacy's drugs are organized by indication. So all antifungals are in one section, all antihypertensives are in another section, etc. I am currently working on alphabetizing the drugs by brand name in their particular sections so that drugs are easier to find. Brand names in Ghana are different from those in the USA. For example, Plan B in Ghana is called Postinor 2. There are no restrictions on who can buy it. No ID needs to be shown in order to prove their age and no prescription needs to be written in order for someone to buy it. According to the pharmacist, most people that usually come in to buy it are over the age of 17.
One day, some members of the Food and Drugs Board (FDB) came into the pharmacy looking for an antimalarial drug that people had been selling illegally (fake product). The FDB is the Ghanaian government agency responsible for inspection, certification, and proper distribution of food products and drugs in Ghana (Ghana equivalent to USA's FDA). It was interesting to see them at work because they came in as if they were regular customers and after they introduced who they were, they inspected the pharmacy to make sure that all products being sold had been regulated.
Yesterday a lady came into the pharmacy wanting to buy Amoxicillin for her twins because she ran out. When asked why she was giving it to them, she claimed that she gave it to them with paracetamol (analgesic equivalent to Tylenol) whenever they had an upset stomach. The pharmacist then explained to her that amoxicillin is an antibiotic that is not used on an as needed basis.
Today I watched the pharmacist compound phenobarbital for a 16 month old child. She let me do the calculation to make sure I understood how many tablets she was using that would equate to what the prescription called for.
I created a public health project exploring hypertension in Ghana. I hope to start it next week now that I have familiarized myself with the pharmacy and have one week of experience interacting with patients.
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