Epidemiological Profile and Geographical Distribution of Pharmacies in Mashhad, Iran

To establish an integrated health system and balanced urban system, controlling the geographical distribution of pharmacies is one of the necessities in every city. The objective of this study was to evaluate the frequency and distribution of pharmacies in the city of Mashhad. In this this study, data including geographical location of pharmacies, working hour of pharmacy, and the ownership of pharmacy were extracted from the databank of Mashhad Medical Council (MMC) and Vice chancellor for treatment affairs of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences (MUMS). The data included pharmacists and pharmacies registered to the databank up to beginning of April 2014. Up to April 2014, 995 pharmacists have been registered to MMC. In the Mashhad metropolitan area, 460 pharmacies including 423 private pharmacies (92%), 29 governmental pharmacies (6%) and 8 charitable pharmacies (2%) are working that according to pharmacy opening hours, 379 pharmacies were fulltime (82%), 43 were 24 hourly (10%) and 38 were part-time (8%). Considering the zoning of Mashhad (13 municipality zones), the highest number of pharmacies located in zone#1 (25%) followed by and zone#8 (11%), zone#2 (10%) and zone#9 (10%). The ratio of pharmacy to 10,000 population was 1.7 in average in all Mashhad municipality zones while this ratio in Samen zone (7.5) and zone#1 (6.5) was higher and in zone#5 and zone#12 was lower than other zones. Data analysis showed the highest concentration of pharmacies in the zone around Imam Reza Holy Shrine and in two relatively higher-income zones of Mashhad, particularly around the two main public hospitals (Imam Reza and Ghaem). To achieve a balanced distribution of pharmacies, an accurate surveillance and legislation of comprehensive regulations for pharmacy positioning through collaboration of MUMS and MMC is necessary.