Morbidity Profile and Prescription Practices in Public Health Facilities in 13 Provinces in Afghanistan

Morbidity Profile and Prescription Practices in Public Health Facilities in 13 Provinces in Afghanistan

By: Ehsan Ibrahimi, Rana Kamil, Abdul Ahmad Roshan, Hafizullah Mahmudi, Ahmad Samadi, Paul Ickx

In 2012, the Strengthening Pharmaceutical Systems (SPS) Afghanistan Associate Award project—in collaboration with the General Directorate of Pharmaceutical Affairs (GDPA), Grants Contracts Management Unit (GCMU), and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) implementing Partnership Contracts for Health (PCH)—undertook a detailed analysis of outpatient conditions and treatment in a sample of different types of facilities in the 13 PCH provinces. The first purpose of the analysis was to establish average morbidity profiles for each type of BPHS facility, allowing pharmacy staff to fine-tune selection and quantification of essential medicines to be provided for use at these facilities. The second purpose was to establish a baseline for rational medicine use (RMU) indicators for prescribing; these values are expected to change when the National Standard Treatment Guidelines for Primary Level (NSTG-PL) are increasingly used throughout the system.