PATENT AND PROPRIETARY MEDICINE VENDORS SERVICES AND FACTORS INFLUENCING THEIR NON-COMPLIANCE WITH REGULATORY...

Patent and Proprietary Medicine Vendors (PPMVs) are major private and informal healthcare service providers in Nigeria, whose activities are regulated by the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria (PCN). Review of literature have documented concerns about PPMVs' non-compliance with PCN's service provision guidelines and their implications for the health outcomes of their clients. Studies among PPMVs on the services they provide and their non-compliance with regulatory guidelines in semi-urban areas have been under explored. This study however, investigated types of services provided by PPMVs and their non-compliance with regulatory guidelines in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria.

This descriptive cross-sectional study included registered patent and proprietary medicine vendors selected from two out of the six semi-urban Local Government areas of Ibadan, Oyo State through random sampling using an interviewer-administered semi-structured questionnaire with data collected using the KoboCollect. The questionnaire elicited responses on the types of services provided by PPMVs to their clients and factors influencing their non-compliance with the regulatory guidelines. Data was collected and analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics with SPSS version 25, at 0.05 level of significance.

Two hundred and eight respondents were recruited for the study. Respondent's mean age was 38.17-10.82, years. Majority (80.8%) were females, less than half (40.9%) had post-secondary-level education. A few (13.9%) had additional health-related qualifications. Respondents provided services which were both within (treatment of ailments; 50.5%, and Referral 50%) and outside (giving injections; 51.9% and prescription of medicine; 49.1%) their scope of operation. Factors which influenced non-compliance mentioned by respondents were attendance of PCNs training, licensure with PCN and reception of monitoring visits, were significantly associated with noncompliance with guidelines on service provision (p<0.05).

Patent and proprietary medicine vendors in Ibadan, Oyo state, play a significant role in providing accessible primary healthcare services within and outside their scope of operation to the populace, several factors are responsible for their non-compliance with regulatory guidelines which dove-tailed into rendering of services beyond their scope of operations.