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Following is a question by the Hon Joseph Lee and a written reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (October 25):
Question:
At its meeting on June 28, 2005, the Panel on Health Services of this Council discussed with the Administration the implementation of the separation of prescribing from dispensing of drugs (SPD) and urged the Administration to proactively consider the promulgation of a policy on SPD. Given that recently there was another incident of dispensing error and suspected use of unregistered drugs by a doctor in private practice, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) whether it has drawn up guidelines for private clinics on the procedures of drug purchase and dispensing; if it has, of the contents of the guidelines, and whether it will review the effectiveness of such guidelines in view of the recurrence of the incident of dispensing error; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(b) whether it has studied a policy on SPD and formed an ad hoc group on SPD; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
(c) whether it has considered the difficulties in meeting the short-term, interim and long-term targets in the future implementation of SPD, the ancillary measures required, and the corresponding solutions and arrangements; if it has, of the details?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) Safe dispensing of drugs has always been of primary concern to the Administration. To further ensure the protection for patients, the Medical Council of Hong Kong (the Medical Council) conducted in July 2005 a review of the provisions on drug dispensing in its Professional Code and Conduct for the Guidance of Registered Medical Practitioners (the Code). The revised provisions were published in Issue No. 11 of the Newsletter of the Medical Council in August 2005. Under the revised Section 10.1 of the Code, a medical practitioner who dispenses medicine to patients has the personal responsibility to ensure that the drugs so dispensed are strictly in accordance with the details in the prescription and are properly labelled before the drugs are handed over to the patients. The Code also requires medical practitioners to lay down appropriate procedures to ensure that the drugs are properly labelled and correctly dispensed, and follow the Good Dispensing Practice Manual issued by the Hong Kong Medical Association. Medical practitioners must supervise the entire dispensing procedure and ensure that their staff comply with such procedures. The Medical Council of Hong Kong may consider taking disciplinary action against registered medical practitioners who are in breach of the above requirements. The Hong Kong Medical Association is also reviewing its Good Dispensing Practice Manual and will collect views from medical practitioners with a view to making appropriate changes to the Manual.
(b) and (c) Currently, patients have the right to ask their doctors at private clinics for a prescription and obtain the drugs from pharmacists in community pharmacies. SPD could have far-reaching implications on, amongst others, the current role of doctors in solo-practice, manpower demand for pharmacists and medical expenditure of members of the public, and may involve a major change of patient behaviour, the matter would require a thorough discussion by the stakeholders and the community as a whole. We consider that the well being of patients overrides and any changes to be introduced should be conducive to the co-operation between doctors and pharmacists. A consensus should be reached by members of the community before any major change should be made. We will continue to listen to the views of all the stakeholders.
Ends/Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Issued at HKT 15:18
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