| Summary: | Assess the quality of pharmaceutical services provided in public pharmacies using results of audits carried out by the Pharmaceutical Inspection. Part 1. General analysis.
In Poland, quality supervision and marketing of medicinal products is the task of the State Pharmaceutical Inspection. The main goal of its activities include securing social interests in terms of health and life safety of people using medications purchased, among others in pharmacies. The manuscript proposes a new solution to assess the quality of pharmaceutical services provided in public pharmacies using results of audits carried out by the Pharmaceutical Inspection. Research material consists of data obtained from the Voivodeship Pharmaceutical Inspectorates (WIF) regarding the number of carried out inspections and detected irregularities between January 1, 2015 and June 30, 2016. The research was conducted in 2016, among all 16 Voivodeship Inspectorates. At the request to provide essential information, 12 WIF responded positively, data from the remaining inspectorates was obtained from public information made available on their websites. In 2015, 3988 audits of public pharmacies were carried out. At that time, 13,469 public pharmacies operated in Poland and 134 inspectors were employed. On average one inspector carried out 2.5 audits monthly, which means that a single pharmacy was inspected once in 3.5 years (these calculations do not refer to other entities supervised by this office). The number of inspectors to entities and imposed tasks is insufficient, translating into the frequency of pharmacy’s inspections. This frequency can have a direct impact on the quality of provided services, as each inspection is aimed at eliminating mistakes. A hypothesis can be drawn that the less frequently an entity is audited, especially an entity where irregularities are noted, the easier it is to repeat and consolidate those irregularities to everyday practice. This in turn can lead to providing low quality pharmaceutical services.
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