Characterization of pharmacy services in Portuguese prisons: a national survey

Abstract

Purpose – The primary purpose of this paper is to collect reliable information to characterize the pharmacy services in Portuguese prisons. The secondary purpose is to develop a set of suggestions for improving these services and, therefore, improve the health services provided to the inmate population. Design/methodology/approach – A three pages survey was developed that included questions covering the characterization of prison health teams, pharmacy services and pharmacy activities. This survey was sent to all Portuguese prisons, with capacity higher than 50 prisoners. The response rate was of 87.5 per cent. Findings – It was found that only 6.1 per cent of prisons had pharmacists and that in 63 per cent the guards still participated in pharmacy activities. There were not Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committees in 94 per cent of prisons and 94.4 per cent did not present adequate storage conditions for drugs. Only 51.7 per cent of prisons had computers in the pharmacy and only 3.4 per cent had access to the internet. This study found that there is a gap between public and prison pharmacy services, since most prison pharmacies in Portugal are solely locals of storage and distribution of drugs, with no effective management nor promotion of drug rational use. Originality/value – This paper is the first study about pharmacy services in Portuguese prisons. The information collected could be very useful to improve the Portuguese prison pharmacy services provided to prisoners.