Unused medicines will be disposed of – director

KOTA KINABALU: Unused medicines returned to government clinics or hospitals would be disposed of, said Sabah Health Department director Datuk Dr Christina Rundi.

Dispelling rumours that unused medicines were returned due to the bad economic conditions, Dr Christina said they had a very strict way of disposing of unused drugs.

“There is a mechanism to do so and through a proper channel,” she added.

“Even if the packaging is good, we don't use it because we don't know how the patients had kept it.

“So what we did in Sabah two years back in 2015, (was) we actually put a box like a repository where you can actually bring back all the medication that you didn't use. So when we started doing that, we noticed that there were a lot.

“Of course we didn't go into details whether those (drugs) came from government or from private hospitals... what things (medicines) they bought on their own. We actually summed them up in terms of ringgit and sen and it came to quite a lot,” she said.

Dr Christina was met after she officiated at the 30th Sabah State Pharmacy Conference 2017 which was held at the state federal government administration complex along Jalan UMS here, yesterday.

Aware of the existence of unused medicines, she said patients who were admitted to the hospitals were also encouraged to bring along their own medicines so that the patients could continue to be treated using the same drugs.

These steps are being carried out in order to avoid accumulation of unused medicines by the patients.

Stressing on the escalating prices of drugs, she said the practice returning unused medicines helped cut wastage and financial losses.

“If you notice, when we dispense our drugs we also put down the actual price of the medication because a lot of people do not appreciate that for the RM1 that you pay, you are actually getting a lot, the treatment and also the medication, and we want the people to appreciate that.

“If you don't want the drugs, then you don't ask for them. Drugs are getting expensive. They are not cheap; there's a price to it but because of the healthcare subsidy, people don't see it.”

On another development regarding the varieties of 1Malaysia Clinics, she said they varied according to local demand.

She said basically, a 1Malaysia Clinic would have a medical assistant, but depending on local demand and the area, the clinics had evolved into a variety of categories, including doctor services, antenatal, children and dental care.

The conference was organized by the Pharmacy Services Division of the State Health Department together with the Sabah Pharmaceutical Society and themed “Are Pearls Really White? Reflection on Professionalism”.

The conference also marked the third year of collaboration between the two parties.

As of June 2017, there were 586 pharmacists compared to 352 pharmacists in 2010, in the public sector in Sabah.

Also present were Health deputy director (Pharmacy) Mohd Zamri Baharudin and president of Sabah Pharmaceutical Society Susan Pan.