(288) Exploring community pharmacy services in the Gulf Region: a scoping review

Background: Despite the evolving role of community pharmacists (CPs) worldwide in promoting public health and disease management, the role of CPs in the Gulf countries (Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and Bahrain) is mainly limited to dispensing, with scarce evidence on extended non-dispensing services.

Objectives: To describe the type, nature, extent, and/or effectiveness of the pharmaceutical care services in the community pharmacy setting in the Gulf region.

Methods: This review was carried out following the JBI methodology for scoping reviews and the Preferred Reporting Item for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis extension for scoping review (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines for conducting a scoping review. Four databases were searched in July 2023. All primary studies conducted in the Gulf countries regarding community pharmacy services, or services exploring readiness and willingness for implementation were included. The extracted data were narratively synthesised.

Results: Overall, 95 studies were included. Most studies were conducted in Saudi Arabia (n=45, 47.3%) and UAE (n=33, 34.7%), with no studies in Oman and Bahrain. CPs were mostly involved in dispensing and counselling services, however, studies have shown that their counselling practices were inadequate. In some countries, CPs offer a variety of additional services with varied extent and quality including minor ailment management, service for pregnant and lactating women, reporting adverse drug reactions, tele-pharmacy services, immunisation, asthma education, chronic disease monitoring, point of care testing, independent prescribing and health promotion activities. Humanistic effectiveness of service (patient quality of life or satisfaction) was reported in 10 (10.5%) studies, 7 (7.4%) studies explored clinical effectiveness, and only one (1.2%) evaluated economic effectiveness. Screening, point-of-care testing, medication review, health education, and chronic disease management and monitoring were the most frequently recommended extended community pharmacy services by stakeholders. CPs in Gulf countries were willing and interested in offering a variety of extended roles.

Conclusions: CPs have multiple opportunities to extend their role as healthcare providers. More efforts need to be made to improve community pharmacy practice in the Gulf region. It is important to ensure that any newly implemented services are thoroughly evaluated for their humanistic, clinical and economic impact.