Equality in distribution of pharmacist workforce in Iran

Purpose: To achieve health for everyone, health systems in all countries need training and proper distribution of human resources in the spatial and temporal places. This study aimed to evaluate the equality of the distribution of pharmacists affiliated to medical universities in the country. Material and Methods: The data for this study were collected from the Statistical Center of Iran and Statistical Yearbook of 2014. After collecting data we started to analyze the distribution of pharmacists according to population. In entire Iran country, 31 provinces and in three types of universities of medical sciences those are responsible for distribution of health human resources in each province by Gini and Theil T indices. Results: Results show that, 16 provinces have a positive gap and 15 provinces have a negative gap and there is no balance in the share of the population in compare of the pharmacist in any of the provinces. Overall Gini coefficient was 0.71 and Theil T showed that within inequality explained 47.2% and between inequality explained 52.8% overall inequality. The Gini index in Type 3 provinces was 0.5 and they have better distribution than type 1 and type 2 provinces with 0.6 and .64 Gini index. Conclusion: Pharmacists play an important role in providing guidance and advice for the correct use of drugs. Appropriate distribution of pharmacists is one of the most important factors in improving access and health services throughout the society. But unfortunately there is an unbalanced geographical distribution in the country and there still is a significant deficit in the deprived areas.