One of the major cause of medication error in Pakistan is the immediate dispensing of medication within few minutes or almost instantly.
Whenever a person goes to any hospital or community pharmacy, the pharmacist/technician takes the prescription and dispenses the medications almost immediately.
However it has been noticed that in established countries, that whenever a patient or attendant comes in the community pharmacy with a prescription, gets it scanned by a technician into the system, retains the prescription and allots a time for picking up the desired medication.
At pick up time, the patient goes to the cashier first, pays the charges and then the pharmacist comes in the consultation window to dispense a medication and counsel the patient with all important information related to that medicine. This practice not only minimizes error but also satisfies the patient needs and gives a chance to the patient for asking any open questions.
One of the established pharmacy ways through which our country can function better is to deploy mail order pharmacy services/online pharmacy for those who take medicines on a regular basis.
Moreover there is also a facility for Drive thru Pharmacy where a patient drops a prescription or picks up the medication from a pharmacy which saves time and increases the compliance of patients or for those who used to avoid walk into the pharmacy.
According to US practice ,a community pharmacist fills a maximum of 150 prescriptionsa day in order to decrease the chance of error as compared to our country where there is no record of pharmacist filled prescriptions. Also because of the low budget allotted to pharmacies, less staff is recruited which in turn increases the chances of error.
As a matter of fact, medication error is the third biggest reason of mortality in the world. However, with proper management and counseling, it can save lives if rectified.
See more at the source: JPMS Medical Blogs
Azmina Nayani has received her Pharm D degree from Pakistan. She has received hospital training from the Aga Khan University Hospital, Pakistan and has worked there as a hospital pharmacist for few years. She has published her creative writings in Young world (Dawn) and JPMS journal.
Ismailimail 
Your findings about medication error are absolutely right.There is need to take a initiative to introduce well mechanized medication system in Pakistan in order to keep the economical status of a common man in mind.
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