40 violations found at pharmacies

Around 40 violations were found last year at the pharmacies in Bahrain related to selling, pricing and licensing of medicines. The findings follow close to 600 inspection visits by the National Health Regulatory Authority (NHRA) inspection team in 2018. One of the most common types of violation detected during NHRA inspection was selling related.

The authority spotted 15 of them. Altogether NHRA spotted five types of violations which were recurring. The second most detected violation was related to Pricing. NHRA found eight during visits. Others are pharmacy set up violations (5), licensing violations (6) and temperature/humidity/ fridge violation (6). 

Pharma count jump 

The NHRA said there are currently 263 licensed pharmacies in the Kingdom, an increase of 50 from the prior year. In 2017, there were 213 pharmacies.

Of the 263 pharmacies, 59 are associated with hospitals, while 204 are private pharmacies. 

Most in Capital 

According to NHRA, Capital Governorate witnessed the most number of opening in the year 2018. As of now, there are a total of 95 pharmacies in the Capital.

Closely following is Northern Governorate in the second spot with 61 pharmacies. Southern has 57 and Muharraq 51.