Introduction:

Pharmaceutical Care is a professional practice philosophy promoted in the 90s and supported by the World Health Organization and the International Federation of Pharmacists and other professional organizations.

Objective:

To determine the barriers that prevent the implementation of Pharmaceutical Care in internal and external pharmacies of public and private healthcare centers where specialists in Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Care are presents.

Materials and methods:

Descriptive cross-sectional study, carried out through a survey adapted to pharmaceutical professionals with postgraduate training in Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Care, who work in external or internal pharmacies of public or private healthcare centers in the Capital City and Central Department of Paraguay.

Results:

34 respondents participated in the study, of whom 29/34 (85.3%) were female. Only one respondent owned a pharmacy. 64.7% (n = 22) had specialized training in Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Care. 23/34 (n = 67.6%) had more than 10 years of professional experience. Among the most frequent barriers for the implementation of pharmaceutical care are: the lack of regulations (n = 14, 41.2%), lack of time (n = 10, 29.4%), lack of necessary infrastructure (n = 8) were highlighted, (23.5%) or does not receive the appropriate salary for providing the “Pharmaceutical Care”.

Conclusion:

The most frequent barriers that prevent the implementation of Pharmaceutical Care, are the lack of regulation, lack of time, lack of infrastructure, lack of extra paid for that particular activity out of the scope of every day job.

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