No separation of medical roles: MMA
> Proposed Pharmacy Act far from being tabled
KUALA LUMPUR: There are no plans for the separation of roles of doctors and pharmacists in the prescribing and dispensing of medication, said Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) president Dr H. Krishna Kumar.
Speaking at a press conference yesterday at the MMA headquarters, he said they had a meeting with Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam and apart from his assurance that the separation of roles would not be implemented, he was also informed that the proposed Pharmacy Act is still very far from being tabled and any report that it will be tabled in Parliament on April 1 is not true.
“We have been told that the (proposed) Pharmacy Act is to merge several of the older acts that range from 1951 to 1956 which are more than 50 years old. The reason for this is to streamline the acts to meet current needs and to cover areas that are not covered in the current acts,” said Krishna.
“We were also told that there will be no separation of roles in dispensing and prescribing medication in this act.”
He explained that the status quo will remain and that doctors in private practice will still be allowed to prescribe and dispense medication from their registered place of practice without restriction.
“We in the MMA object to the separation of roles in dispensing and prescribing medication. The main reason is because the country is not ready for it due to the insufficient number of pharmacists and pharmacies,” he added.
He explained that if this scenario were to happen, people in the rural areas would suffer greatly,” he said.
He also said another issue is that there are not many pharmacies that are open round the clock for patients to obtain their medication, but there are general practitioners that are open all day, thus making it easier for patients to get their medication.
“Even if there are round-the-clock pharmacies, there are rarely pharmacists on hand to work round the clock,” he said.
He said a separation of roles will also cause a great deal of confusion as pharmacists may not readily have the drugs prescribed by doctors, which will be an inconvenience to patients who will then have to go pharmacy hunting for their prescribed medication.