Study of pharmacist workforce in public sector, of republic of the union of Myanmar

Abstract

Health workforce shortage was common across the world including Myanmar. However, there was not previous study about the pharmacist workforce to ascertain the shortage problem in Myanmar. This study was aimed to analyze the current situation of pharmacist workforce in Myanmar especially in public sector and to construct a simulation model to suggest the appropriate policy options to the policymakers in improving the pharmacist workforce situations in the public hospitals.For the first objective, the study design was a cross-sectional survey using a mixed method which consisted of the secondary data analysis and semi-structured face-to-face interviews. The government registry data related to the human resources was obtained from the Ministry of Health and Sports, the Government Pharmaceutical Industries and the Ministry of Home Affairs. The ratio of pharmacists per 10,000 population, the distributions of pharmacists by public sector and by geographic regions and pharmacist vacancy rate across seven departments were analyzed. The current and future roles and responsibilities of pharmacists were evaluated from the semi-structured interview. For the second objective, the study design was a simulation model. The data from previous published articles and government registry database were input into the model.This study found that the numerical, distributional and skill shortage was observed in Myanmar. Pharmacist density was 0.73 pharmacist per 10,000 population. Pharmacists were mal-distributed geographically. Pharmacists were unequally distributed among public (15%) and private sectors (85%). Skill shortage was observed in public hospitals. Hospital pharmacists were limited for other pharmaceutical care functions. The simulation model found the best policy option of double graduation rate, 3-year compulsory service and 50% exit rate to deliver the clinical pharmacy service with low level of use of service.