Mapping of pharmaceutical establishments in a sub-saharan country in a crisis context: Case of the city of Goma in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo

Introduction: The study was about the mapping of health care Organization in urban areas. It aims is to show the apportionment, appurtenance, and profile of the pharmaceutical pharmacies in the Goma city, in eastern DRC. Goma city is served in medicine by the public and private sector. Methodology: The study is cross-sectional and descriptive. It was carried out by an exhaustive census of pharmacies. Data entry and analysis was done using SPSS version 23 software. Results: The inventory of pharmacies is 723 in the city of Goma, whether one pharmaceutical office for 1.314 habitants. Almost 70% of them have set up in the last 5 years, with 31% in 2017 alone. One third of pharmacies have official authorization minutes from the Ministry of Health. All of the pharmacies are private for profit and are supplied by the private sector. More than 90% of pharmacies operate in non-standard premises and are run in 92.1% of cases by healthcare providers. Conclusion: Private pharmaceutical pharmacies play a major role in the supply of medicines in urban areas of Goma. Their functioning far from the standards, seems to indicate a lack of regulation, which exposes the population to the consumption of drugs of a potentially non-optimal quality.