The Accessibility Of Disabled Patients In Pharmacy Services In Indonesia, A Cross Sectional Study From Young Pharmacists Perspective

• By: SAPUTRA, Stanley (Indonesian Young Pharmacist Group, Indonesia)
• Co-author(s): Mr Stanley Saputra (Indonesian Young Pharmacist Group, DKI Jakarta, Indonesia)
  Benny Wijaya Suggono (Indonesian Young Pharmacist Group, DKI Jakarta, Indonesia)
  Dwi Prasetyaning Rahmawati (Indonesian Young Pharmacist Group, DKI Jakarta, Indonesia)
  Mr I Made Bayu Anggriawan (Indonesian Young Pharmacist Group, DKI Jakarta, Indonesia)
  Mr Radian Zakir (Indonesian Young Pharmacist Group, DKI Jakarta, Indonesia)
  Ms Anggun Wardhani (Indonesian Young Pharmacist Group, DKI Jakarta, Indonesia)
  
• Abstract:

  Introduction:
  Disability in Indonesia is one of the remaining significant social issues, especially to achieve health equality and equity among all citizens. According to an estimate from the Ministry of Social Affairs, 27 million or equal to around 10% of the whole Indonesian population are disabled. In health services, many studies reported inaccessibility for disabled to reach the facility due to lack of training among the healthcare workforce to provide educational instruments and infrastructure such as railways. There has been limited evidence on what are the challenges faced by pharmacists in providing services for disabled patients. To fill the evidence gap, we performed a cross sectional survey to understand the barrier of providing services for disabled patients from the pharmacist’s perspective.
  
  Objectives:
  Provide a preliminary assessment on disability access in pharmacy services in Indonesia, to enable advocacy on policy-making process or further studies to create inclusive health services.
  
  Design, Subjects, and Setting:
  Cross Sectional Online Survey targeting pharmacists that work in hospital, clinic or community pharmacy in Indonesia.
  
  Methods:
  A questionnaire form was built referencing The Disability Partnership Pharmacy Project Report by Mencap. Surveys were divided into three sections including demography of participant and service delivery for disabled patients, accessibility and communication method. Form was then distributed around the Indonesian Young Pharmacist Group (IYPG) and Indonesian Pharmacist Association (Ikatan Apoteker Indonesia/IAI) networks through social media, and email blast. Data were collected from 17-29 April 2023.
  
  Subjects:
  117 Pharmacists at the hospital, clinic and retail.
  
  Results:
  Of the total 117 responses collected, it was found that 49.6% pharmacists have difficulties providing service to disabled patients, due to several reasons: information delivery medium (51.3%), and communication difficulty (47%). 73,7% of respondents have received patients with disability but 86.3% Pharmacists reported never being trained to serve disabled patients, and 76.1% of pharmacy facilities have no Standard Operating Procedures (SOP). 67% respondents that they receive less than 10 disabled patients monthly. The most common type of patients were multiple disability patients 42,4% and patients with physical disability 22,8%.Of 50.4% who reported not having difficulty serving disabled patients, 67.2% answered that patients were accompanied with their relatives.
  
  Conclusion:
  Resource and awareness to provide service for disabled patients were shown low among Pharmacists in the health facilities. Several causes are lack of training, communication instruments, and infrastructure. To continue in developing the evidence, ee are suggesting further research such as qualitative study on patient’s barrier and facilitator in accessing pharmacy services. Furthermore, developing guidelines and training pharmacists to provide services for disabled patients are needed.