Community Pharmacist Roles in Thailand, The United Kingdom, The United States, and Australia: A Comparative Narrative Review
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Abstract
Community pharmacists contribute to primary care, but their roles differ across health systems. Comparative evidence on service scope, legal authority, reimbursement, and healthcare integration in Thailand and other established pharmacy systems remains limited. To compare community-pharmacist roles in Thailand, the United Kingdom (UK), the United States (USA), and Australia and examine how health-system arrangements relate to service delivery. A comparative narrative review with a structured literature search was conducted. PubMed, Scopus, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, and Thai Journals Online were searched for English- and Thai-language sources published from 2016 to 2026. PubMed Central was used for full-text retrieval. The final evidence base comprised 29 sources: 18 direct country- or service-specific sources and 11 contextual, review, professional, policy, or service sources. Findings were synthesized by country and service domain. UK evidence focused on nationally commissioned services, US evidence on jurisdiction-specific preventive and harm-reduction activities, and Australian evidence on structured medication review. Thai evidence described smoking cessation, digital communication, and NHSO-supported minor-illness care. Direct evidence for routine pharmacist-administered vaccination, formal telepharmacy, independent prescribing, and structured mental-health services in Thai community pharmacies was limited. Differences in source type and evidence coverage restricted direct comparison. Community-pharmacy roles vary in scope and organization across the four countries. International models may inform service development in Thailand but require adaptation to local legal, financial, and primary-care systems. Existing NHSO-supported services should be evaluated for safety, outcomes, referral, workload, and cost-effectiveness before wider expansion.
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