Impact of using essential drug list: analysis of drug use indicators in Gaza Strip.

A descriptive cross-sectional study evaluated the compliance of physicians with the Palestinian essential drug list (EDL) in all the government primary care clinics in the Gaza Strip. While 67.4% reported currently using the EDL 51.2% of these physicians reported problems in using it. The mean number of drugs per prescription was 1.92, the percentage of drugs prescribed from the EDL was 97.9% but the percentage of drugs prescribed by generic name was only 5.5%. A copy of the EDL was available in 28.3% of clinics and the availability of key drugs was 82.6%. The compliance of physicians with the EDL was generally good, but more efforts are needed to encourage prescribing by generic name and to ensure the supply of key drugs.