An Assessment of the Effects of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) on Community Pharmacy Service Delivery in Lagos State

BackgroundCommunity pharmacists play an important role as frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the delivery of pharmaceutical care and the availability of drugs is compromised. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on community pharmacy service delivery in Lagos state. MethodsA cross-sectional study with an online questionnaire created using Google Forms software was sent to community pharmacists in Lagos State, Nigeria via the Association of Community Pharmacists in Nigeria WhatsApp platforms. The sample size was 120 respondents conveniently chosen. Ethical approval was obtained from Health Research Ethics Committee, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba, Lagos State. Collected data was analyzed using Microsoft Excel. ResultsA total of 125 respondents participated in the study. The result showed 56% were female respondents and the mean age of respondents was 32.4 {+/-} 4.7 years. Measures such as the use of face masks (90.4%) and restricted number of patients for access at a time (89.6%) were implemented to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Majority of the respondents (61.6%) believe the measures have reduced the interaction between patients and pharmacists. Most of the respondents (81.6%) believe the pandemic has affected the availability and almost average (48%) of the respondents think that there was inflation in the prices of products like antimalarials, antibiotics, protective and preventive equipment and multivitamins. ConclusionThe COVID-19 pandemic has affected the delivery of pharmaceutical care to clients as well as the availability of medicines to patients. To improve the delivery of pharmaceutical care, tele-pharmacy and online pharmaceutical services may be employed.