Pilot drug and therapeutic committee program in Sierra Leone: a
descriptive mixed method study
Abstract
Introduction Irrational medicine use is proportionately higher in low
and middle-income countries like Sierra Leone. This study aims at
exploring the structure, functions, and challenges of Drug, and
Therapeutics Committees (DTC) recently piloted in Sierra Leone. Method A
two-phase mixed-method study design was used in this study. Firstly, a
cross-sectional survey using an online questionnaire to assess the
structure, indicators, and challenges of DTC . In phase two, a
semi-structured interview was used to get deeper insights into the key
issues that emerged from the survey. Participants were mainly
pharmacists in-charge at the hospitals where the DTC program hasbeen
established. MS Excel 2019 and NVivo version 12 were respectively used
for data management and analysis. Results DTCs mostly had a minimum of
ten members consisting of a mix of both medical and hospital
administrative staff. The main functions of DTC are ensuring rational
medicines use, monitoring, and reporting adverse drug reactions. All but
one hospital had subcommittees that are either effective or
nonfunctional. The main challenges in DTC functions and maintenance were
funding (n=6), DTC decision implementation (n=4), and unmotivated
members (n=4). Strategies suggested to improve DTC at public hospitals
and nationwide include; resource allocation, monitoring, and evaluating
DTC functions and capacity building of its members. Conclusion DTC
present a compelling opportunity towards achieving rational medicines
use at the hospital level in Sierra Leone. Nonetheless, lack of funding,
operational resources, are significant limitations. Policymakers must
note these drawbacks whilst expanding DTC programs to other hospitals in
Sierra Leone.