Introduction: medicines are the most frequently used intervention in healthcare. Rational and cost-effective prescribing is especially important in countries where access to effective medicines may be challenged by affordability issues. This study describes the prescribing patterns of doctors in government hospitals in Freetown, Sierra Leone, considering the scope for rationalising prescribing and reducing cost to the patient.

Methods: a descriptive, retrospective, cross-sectional study was conducted at four hospitals, using selected World Health Organisation (WHO) indicators applied to 600 prescriptions, after systematic random sampling. The data was analysed using SPSS.16 and the Index of Rational Drug Prescrib-ing (IRDP) calculated. The Spearman's rank coefficient was used to examine possible associations between the number of medicines prescribed as generics and from the National Essential Medicines List (NEML) and cost of the prescription respectively. Affordability was determined from the average number of days of work required to purchase a prescription, based on the minimum wage of the lowest paid government worker in Sierra Leone.

Results: the mean number of medicines per prescription from the four hospitals was 4.37(range 4.18-4.56) with 57% prescribed generically and 64% from the NEML. An antibiotic and injection were found on 72% and 26% of prescriptions respectively. The overall IRDP was 2.65/5. The aver-age cost per prescription was Le. 29,376.30 ($6.78), equivalent to 43 days of work of the lowest paid government worker.

Conclusion: in this study, opportunities were identified for significant rationalisation and improvement in cost-effective prescribing.