Pharmacy Stakeholders’ Perspectives on Healthcare Needs Amenable to Pharmacists’ Care: Insights from a Qualitative Study

Introduction: Healthcare professionals, including pharmacists, are facing evolving healthcare needs worldwide. To meet these demands, pharmacists must continuously develop their competencies to remain responsive to the needs of the societies they serve. In Saudi Arabia, however, there is limited information regarding healthcare and pharmaceutical service needs. Therefore, this study aimed to explore societal healthcare needs that could benefit from pharmacists’ contributions within the Saudi context. Methods: Face-to-face semi-structured individual interviews and focus groups, was conducted between September and November 2019 in Saudi Arabia. Individual interviews were held with 25 policymakers and practicing pharmacists from different practice settings, and eight focus groups were conducted with a total of 53 participants from the public. All interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and thematically analysed using NVivo 12. Results: Two overarching themes were common to both professional and public respondents: health system-related and pharmacy profession-related issues. Professionals’ perspectives were captured in six themes, including healthcare-seeking behaviour, health system challenges, pharmacist roles, and pharmaceutical service needs, while public participants’ views were grouped into four themes, including healthcare access, service preferences, and trust and satisfaction. Both groups agreed that, while medication dispensing is currently the key role of community pharmacists, there is a need to focus on more patient-centred services. The findings also highlighted perceptions of current pharmacy education and graduates’ readiness to meet labour market needs. Conclusion: Respondents perceived a need for pharmacists to expand their roles in community pharmacies to optimise health system capacity and increase access to primary care services. A mismatch between initial education and practice expectations was also highlighted. Strengthening pharmacy education and professional development to ensure needs-based competencies is essential to align pharmacists’ roles with national healthcare priorities and improve population health outcomes.