Accra, Feb 19, GNA- Pharmaceutical practice in Ghana has improved tremendously over the past six years, due to the introduction of the Ghana National Drug Programme (GNDP) in 1997.

A report on a research in the sector released in Accra on Thursday said prior to the introduction of the GNDP, the practice was faced with many challenges that affected the profession.

These included irrational prescription and dispensing, Un-coordinated development policy, unsustainable supply system and irrational use of medicines.

The GNDP was developed to promote the rational use of drugs, strengthen quality assurance, promote supply and investigate avenues for financing drug supplies.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) funded the research on the sector carried out in 2002 in collaboration with the Ministry of Health (MoH) at both public and private health centres in four regions. These were Greater Accra, Ashanti, Brong Ahafo and Upper East regions.

Giving an overview of the research at a national stakeholders dissemination workshop, Mrs Martha Gyansa-Lutterodt, Acting Programme Manager of the GNDP said despite the improvement in the sector, some challenges still affect the practice.

Over 35 experts, including pharmacists, doctors and other health workers are attending the workshop to discuss the findings and draw up a framework which would serve as an impetus to direct actions, priorities and strategies to address problem areas.

Mrs Gyansa-Lutterodt explained that access to medicines was still a problem for many people as well as the affordability of key drugs to treat common aliments of adults and children.

Some of the ailments are pneumonia and diarrhoea and Acute Respiratory Tract Infection (ARI).

She therefore, called for a drug pricing policy where all medicine outlets would have a standard price for the same quantity of drugs at the same time.

Mrs Gyansa-Lutterodt stressed the need to improve on drug storage system because some drugs were still kept on the floor while labelling of drugs was also very poor.

She said the prescription of injections and antibiotics in treating ailments was found to be very high while adherence to recommended drug treatment was not "very encouraging".

The research recommended regular monitoring of drug use indicators, training of new personnel in concepts of rational use of drugs, involvement of the private sector in the rational use of medicine, and the need to contribute and strengthen the national health insurance scheme.

Dr Kofi Ahmed, Chief Medical Officer of the MoH said re-imbursement of drugs prescribed under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) need to be addressed with the implementation of the scheme.

He was optimistic that management of drug supplies and the drug list to be utilized under the scheme would enable Ghanaians get the best pharmaceutical services at the lowest cost.

Dr Melville George, WHO country Representative in a speech read for him said the assessment workshop was very important for WHO because the Ghana office had just appointed a personnel for the Essential Drugs Policy and Medicines Policy Monitoring programme. He said the person appointed would help assess problem areas to help define technical support.