Adherence to Prescription Format and Compliance with Who Core Prescribing Indicators

The study was done to see the prescription format and adherence to WHO core prescribing indicators in the pharmacies surrounding the major hospitals in Lahore. A total of 206 prescriptions were collected randomly from different pharmacies. They were analyzed for their adherence to prescription format and rationality of prescription. Patient & prescribers identifiers were mentioned in most of the prescriptions, superscription was present in 64%, and dose and dosage form was mentioned in 88% and 97% of the prescriptions respectively. Direction for dosage and total amount of drugs to be dispensed was 97% & 45% respectively. Instructions regarding use were present in only 16% of prescriptions. Average no. of drugs per encounter was 3.8 which are more than double of as stated by WHO. Percentage of antibiotics was found to be 41% & that of injectable was 19%.Number of drugs prescribed from NEML of Pakistan were 28.4% and generic prescribing was seen in only 4 prescription out of 206 which came out to be drastically low. The quality of prescriptions, in terms of pattern and of the drugs prescribed, was sub-standard. Adherence to WHO core prescribing indicators was also unsatisfactory.