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. 2021 Feb 24;14(1):24.
doi: 10.1186/s40545-021-00308-9.

Geospatial analysis of distribution of community pharmacies and other health care facilities providing minor ailments services in Malaysia

Mei Mei Tew  1   2 , Ernieda Hatah  3 , Faiz Arif  4 , Muhammad Aqiff Abdul Wahid  4 , Mohd Makmor-Bakry  1 , Khairul Nizam Abdul Maulad  4   5
Affiliations

Geospatial analysis of distribution of community pharmacies and other health care facilities providing minor ailments services in Malaysia

Mei Mei Tew et al. J Pharm Policy Pract. .

Abstract

Background: Minor ailments are defined as common, self-limiting, or uncomplicated conditions that may be diagnosed and managed without a medical intervention. Previous studies reported that pharmacists were able to help patients self-manage minor ailments that led to a reduction of health care burden in other facilities. Nevertheless, public access to community pharmacy and other health care facilities offering services for minor ailments has not yet been explored in Malaysia. Hence, this study aims to determine population access to the above-mentioned services.

Method: According to the reported practice address in 2018, the spatial distribution of health care facilities was mapped and explored using the GIS mapping techniques. The density of health care facilities was analyzed using thematic maps with hot spot analysis. Population to facility ratio was calculated using the projection of the population growth based on 2010 census data, which was the latest available in the year of analysis.

Results: The study included geographical mapping of 7051 general practitioner clinics (GPC), 3084 community pharmacies (CP), 139 public general hospitals (GHs) and 990 public primary health clinics (PHC). The health care facilities were found to be highly dense in urban areas than in the rural ones. There were six districts that had no CP, 2 had no GPC, and 11 did not have both. The overall ratio of GPC, CP, GH, and PHC to the population was 1:4228, 1:10,200, 1:223,619 and 1:31,397, respectively. Should the coverage for minor ailment services in public health care clinics be extended to community pharmacies, the ratio of facilities to population for each district would be better with 1:4000-8000.

Conclusions: The distribution of health care facilities for minor ailment management in Malaysia is relatively good. However, if the scheme for minor ailments were available to community pharmacies, then the patients' access to minor ailments services would be further improved.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Spatial patterns of healthcare facilities in Malaysia
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Community pharmacy locations in Malaysia by geographic regions, 2018
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
General practitioners clinics’ locations in Malaysia by geographic regions, 2018
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Public hospitals and primary health care clinics’ locations in Malaysia by geographic regions for 2018
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Thematic map with hot spot analysis for distribution density of all health care facilities (public and private) offering minor ailments services in Malaysia for 2018
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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