SGGP
Call to order or go straight to the pharmacy, read the name and content to buy the desired medicine, regardless of whether it is a prescription drug. This situation has existed for many years, potentially causing harm to the health and life of users.
 |
| People buy medicine at a pharmacy in District 7, Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: HOANG HUNG |
Need is have
Having a family member with type 2 diabetes, Ms. Nguyen Khanh regularly buys Mixtard 30 - a diabetes medication that requires a doctor's prescription. Contacting the Long Chau pharmacy system's hotline, Ms. Khanh was instructed to order and go to Long Chau pharmacy on Bui Minh Truc street (District 8, HCMC) to receive it. Here, the pharmacy staff delivered the medicine to her without asking for a prescription. In a similar way, Ms. Khanh can buy Mixtard 30 at other pharmacies in HCMC without any problems. "Pharmacies also deliver medicine to customers' homes without requiring a doctor's prescription," Ms. Khanh said.
Looking to buy medicine to treat high blood pressure for his family, Mr. Tran Le Nguyen went to Pharmacity pharmacy on Hoang Hoa Tham street (Tan Binh district) and easily bought 2 types of medicine Prolol Savi 10, Stadovas 5mg; at the same time, he was able to buy antibiotics such as Novofungin 250mg, Flagyl 250mg... without a doctor's prescription.
Circular No. 07/2017/TT-BYT of the Ministry of Health clearly stipulates two categories of drugs sold at pharmacies, including drugs that require a doctor's prescription and drugs that do not require a prescription. However, in reality, many pharmacies do not comply with this regulation. Recently, the Department of Health of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City has issued a decision to fine a number of units 30 million VND for violating the sale of drugs without a prescription for drugs that require a doctor's prescription.
Manage prescriptions with technology
According to Dr. Phan Quoc Bao, Department of Examination, University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, Branch 2, drugs are special goods that affect human health and life. Therefore, some drugs are required to have a doctor's prescription before being allowed to be sold. However, in reality, many people have the habit of buying the drugs they have used before, even though they are prescription drugs. This is very dangerous because after a period of treatment and taking the drugs, the patient may develop other diseases and need to be examined and given a new prescription. Meanwhile, Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Lan Hieu, Director of Hanoi Medical University Hospital, said that the fact that the drug seller is also the person examining the patient is quite common. This is extremely dangerous because any drug has side effects, even non-prescription drugs. In addition, the indiscriminate buying and selling of drugs and use of drugs is also the cause of the current serious antibiotic resistance in the community.
Since 2019, the Ministry of Health has developed a project and piloted the operation of the National Information System on Prescription Management and Prescription Drug Sales to manage the situation of selling drugs requiring a doctor's prescription. After selling and dispensing drugs to patients, the drug retail management software sends a report on the quantity sold to the system for storage. When patients go to the next drug retail facility, the facility will receive a report on the quantity sold by the previous facility on each prescription from this national database, thereby avoiding re-selling or over-selling. From January 2023 to present, the number of prescriptions connected on the system is about 40 million. Meanwhile, each year, medical facilities nationwide prescribe about 400-500 million prescriptions. Thus, the number of electronic prescriptions updated on the system in more than half of 2023 only accounts for about 20% of the actual number of prescriptions.
To implement the management of prescriptions and prescription drug sales, many health experts believe that there must be stronger measures from the State management agency so that legal regulations are strictly enforced, ending the situation of buying prescription drugs as easily as buying vegetables for a long time. Experts also recommend that strictly complying with regulations on drug purchase and sale is a solution to protect and improve people's health and reduce the alarming situation of antibiotic resistance today.
According to the provisions of Article 40, Decree 176/2013 on administrative sanctions in the health sector: the act of selling prescription drugs without a doctor's prescription in cases where it does not cause serious consequences enough to warrant criminal prosecution, the pharmacist will only be warned or fined from 200,000 to 500,000 VND; if it causes harm to health or death, the pharmacist will be prosecuted for the crime of violating the regulations on drug sales in Article 315 of the 2015 Penal Code.
Source
Comment (0)