Problems of drug prescription at primary health care centres in southern Saudi Arabia

Objectives: 1. To study the problems of drug prescription at primary health care (PHC) centres. 2. To identify reasons for inappropriate prescribing and to attempt to formulate a strategy to solve the problem. Setting: Six PHC centres in Asir Region, southern Saudi Arabia. Subjects: Eighty-nine PHC physicians who answered a questionnaire about the World Health Organization essential drugs list (EDL) and their prescribing habits. Intervention: Review and analysis of one week's prescriptions at PHC's and a questionnaire conducted by the authors. Results: About 10% of the prescriptions were incomplete; antibiotics were the most prescribed drugs; about one-third of PHC physicians had a poor knowledge of the WHO EDL and about half of them lacked a reliable source of drug information. Conclusion: There is a great need for a multidisciplinary approach to solve the problem of prescribing. The medical schools, Ministry of Health, drug companies and the public can launch appropriate educational programmes to educate doctors continuously about drugs.