Drug and poison information centres: An emergent need for health care professionals in Pakistan.

OBJECTIVE To determine the need of drug and poison information centres in public and private hospitals of Karachi. METHODS The cross-sectional study was conducted at 3 public and 3 private tertiary care hospitals of Karachi, from July 2013 to April 2014, using a self-administered, multi-item questionnaire. Non-probability convenient sampling was used to select the participants. SPSS 18 was used to analyse data. RESULTS Of the 307 physicians, 282(92%) highlighted the need for a 24/7 drug and poison information centre and 206(67%) suggested opening a drug information centre at the hospital. Besides, 215(70%) respondents said they took at least 15 minutes for searching information about the drug while managing a case. Regarding the poisoning case management, 160(52%) physicians complained about the unavailability of medicines in hospitals. CONCLUSIONS Provision of 24 /7 drug information centres with specialised staff are necessary to reduce treatment delays and to ensure provision of quality healthcare.