Human resources in the Palestinian MoH have increased. In the West Bank, the number of MoH health personnel rose from 1,067 or 16.1/10,000 population in 1974 to 2,104 or 19.1/10,000 in 1993, and to 2,731 or 18/10,000 in 1996. Tables 19 and 20 show human resources by category and their ratios to population for both the West Bank and Gaza Strip in recent years.

Table 19. Human resources in the MoH, West Bank, 1989-1996

Note: Numbers of staff positions, and rates per 10,000 population.

Table 20. Human resources in the MoH, Gaza Strip, 1988-1996

Note: Numbers of staff positions, and rates per 10,000 population.

Under the Civil Administration, the General Directorate of Pharmacy had limited staff and functions. In 1993, at the end of the Civil Administration, only 20 pharmacists were employed in the public health services. They were required to carry out all the functions of the Department. Under the PNA, by the end of 1996 the Ministry of Health had increased their number to 97.

Opportunities for the development of human resources in the health sector are generally very limited and there are no organized training programmes in the pharmaceutical sector. Ad hoc training programmes take place from time to time, most of them organized by donor countries. Though often well planned and organized, such programmes do not always meet the actual priorities of the sector.

The potential role of pharmacists in health centres and in health programmes and from the point of view of helping patients is not adequately appreciated. Training courses and programmes should be enhanced to help ensure that there are sufficient numbers of adequately trained staff for hospital pharmacies, community pharmacies, drug regulatory control bodies, drug production, quality control, bioavailability studies, drug use, monitoring studies, and patient counselling to improve compliance.

Additionally, training curricula in local universities should be reviewed and strengthened so that pharmacists are more able to discharge their functions.

University admission criteria should be made stricter because the number of pharmacists is increasing at a rate of approximately 160 per year, without any planning or reference to needs and requirements.

Three categories of pharmacy practitioners currently exist in the West Bank and Gaza Strip:

• pharmacists with a university degree;
• assistant pharmacists who undertake two years of study in a community college;
• lay practitioners who have practised pharmacy for a long time. The recently enacted rules do not allow lay practitioners to continue to practise.