title: Extending the roles of community pharmacists: views from general medical practitioners.
abstract: This study investigates the views of general medical practitioners (GP) to the extended role of the community pharmacists (CP). A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to all private clinics (n=438) run by GPs in the state of Penang. The questionnaire asked GP's views on ideas for new services provided by community pharmacists. Three hundred and twenty-seven questionnaires were collected, giving a response rate of 74.5%. More than 50% of respondents were in favour of the community pharmacist involvement in activities of providing public health education (58.7%), contacting GPs on matters related to prescribing and prescription errors (56.0%), and referring patients who exhibit drug-related problems (53.0%). However, the respondents had a mixed opinion regarding the roles of CPs in smoking cessation programme (34.8%) and providing drug information to physicians (43.0%). Additional research is needed to explain GPs attitudes towards the acceptability of the new role of the pharmacist.
authors.affiliation: Universiti Sains Malaysia, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Minden, Penang, Malaysia. azmi@usm.my.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Azmi
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nazri
authors.forename: A H M
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Azmi
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D058005:General Practitioners; D006801:Humans; D010595:Pharmacists; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires