ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE:To provide a reference for promoting and strengthening pharmaceutical services by retail pharmacies in rural area in Yongzhou of Hunan. METHODS:Investigation was conducted on 13 aspects including the service concept,service mode,service process,service contents,hardwares and softwares and professional quality of practitioners of 357 retail pharmacies in rural area in Yongzhou of Hunan to know about current pharmaceutical services. RESULTS & CONCLUSIONS:In this area, 78.9% of pharmacies operated in the name of a licensed pharmacist or pharmacist who did not work in that pharmacy;only 53.3%of practitioners were pharmacy graduates;the proportion of the practitioners who takes part in training every year was less than 30.0%,average training time was not more than 8 hours;65.3% of practitioners in the pharmacies were not aware of the concept of pharmaceutical services;the pharmacies which were not equipped with basic hardwares and softwares for pharmaceutical servic-es accounted for 47.0%,those which had not established a pharmaceutical service management process accounted for 87.4%;and less than 10.0% of retail pharmacies provided door-to-door pharmaceutical services. Safe,effective and rational drug use should be achieved by intensifying the management and training for retail pharmacy practitioners,standardizing the contents of pharmaceutical services,establishing standard pharmaceutical service process,defining basic hardwares and softwares for pharmaceutical services, strengthening performance appraisal and evaluation for pharmaceutical services and urging the pharmacy to serve society.