If a proposed new system for Malaysia’s medical industry is approved by the Health Ministry, patients will only get consultation from doctors in private clinics, and will need to get their prescribed medication from pharmacies.
Pharmacists claim that the new system will help bring down the price of medicine and open the door for doctors to prescribe a wider array of medication to their patients, despite the initial inconvenience to the public.
The Star Online reports that doctors and pharmacists around the country have held several discussions on the proposal, and plan on meeting Health Minister Dr S Subramaniam soon.
The interest groups are represented by the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA), the Medical Practitioners Coalition Association of Malaysia, the Islamic Medical Association of Malaysia, Malaysian Pharmaceutical Society (MPS) and the Malaysian Community Pharmacy Guild (MCPG).
The five organisations, in their last meeting on November 8, agreed in principle that dispensing medication to patients should be done by pharmacies, MCPG president WOng Sie Sing told The Star yesterday.
Representatives of the country’s pharmacists also met with Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah on November 26.
Wong said that the two trade groups have been working on a feasible timeline for the implementation of the new system, adding, “I hope we can implement it by April.
“If pharmacists are allowed to dispense, doctors would have access to 10 times more drugs to prescribe than what they have in stock. This will benefit the patients.”
The MCPG represents more than 2,000 community pharmacies, which employ some 2,500 pharmacists across the country.
MPS president Nancy Ho said that the segregation between doctors and pharmacists would also allow patients to consult two healthcare professionals before receiving prescription drugs.
“The check-and-balance reduces prescription and dispensing errors. Dispensing separation is about professional medication management and only pharmacists are trained in this specialised practice. We know everything about a drug’s healing value and possible harm,” she said.
MMA president Dr H Krishna Kumar said that although the different groups had met on the issue, nothing concrete had yet to be agreed upon.
