National Pharmacy Practice Programs at Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia

Pharmacy Education had been started in Saudi Arabia in 1959 , and included Clinical Pharmacy in the pharmacy curriculum in 1976 at college of pharmacy in King Saud University, then changed to Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm. D) degree as clinical pharmacy education in early 2010s [1-3]. Over more than 40 years; the colleges of pharmacy expanded to more than twenty and graduate almost more than 600 pharmacists per year with a bachelor degree of pharmacy and doctor of pharmacy [4,5]. Two hospital pharmacies started pharmacy practice and clinical pharmacy services; King Faisal Special Hospital and Research Center in mid-1970s [6], and King Khalid University Hospital in early 1980s [7,8], and one Hospital Pharmacy started at Ministry of Health in Riyadh region at Riyadh Central Hospital, the old name of King Saud Medical City in late 1980s, in addition to the hospital pharmacy in Dhahran. Health Center of Saudi Arabia Aramco Medical Services Organization, which is a part of the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) [9,10]. In early 1990s Two Military Hospital Pharmacies at King Abdul-Aziz Medical city, and Prince Sultan Military Medical City started applying pharmacy practice and providing clinical pharmacy services. The pharmacy practice and clinical pharmacies services expanded quickly after sending several candidates to USA for studying Pharm. D and opening several colleges of pharmacies in mid-2000s. Several Studies had been published describing hospital pharmacy practice and clinical pharmacy services, however they did not differentiated between Ministry of health hospitals or Non- MOH hospitals or private hospital or even Military or National guard or university hospitals; in addition the studies described selected services without focusing on any specialized services. For instant; Intravenous admixture or inpatient pharmacy not discussed, and neither complete specialized clinical pharmacy practice programs, and did not mention any definition or how to start of clinical pharmacy program