title: Impact of using essential drug list: analysis of drug use indicators in Gaza Strip.
abstract: A descriptive cross-sectional study evaluated the compliance of physicians with the Palestinian essential drug list (EDL) in all the government primary care clinics in the Gaza Strip. While 67.4% reported currently using the EDL 51.2% of these physicians reported problems in using it. The mean number of drugs per prescription was 1.92, the percentage of drugs prescribed from the EDL was 97.9% but the percentage of drugs prescribed by generic name was only 5.5%. A copy of the EDL was available in 28.3% of clinics and the availability of key drugs was 82.6%. The compliance of physicians with the EDL was generally good, but more efforts are needed to encourage prescribing by generic name and to ensure the supply of key drugs.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, Al-Quds University, Gaza, Palestine. r_m_11@hotmail.com
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fattouh
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Abu Hamad
mesh_terms: D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D017723:Drug Utilization Review; D018954:Drugs, Essential / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D019983:Guideline Adherence; D006801:Humans; D008877:Middle East; D010820:Physicians / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000458:organization & administration; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
chemical_list: D018954:Drugs, Essential