KUALA LUMPUR: The issue of dispensing separation should be understood from the perspective of patients, says Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad.
He noted that both doctors and pharmacists played important roles in handling patients.
He said doctors were reponsible for diagnosing illness and prescribing treatment, while pharmacists had expertise in medicine and were responsible for dispensing them.
“Can there be isolation? It depends on the reasonableness and the importance of meeting the needs of the patient,” he said after marking World Pharmacists Day at a shopping centre, here, today.
“This is because some locations have no pharmacies and it is the doctor’s responsibility to provide the necessary prescription.
“We cannot create a law that inconveniences patients... (but) we may look into a hybrid and flexible system, not yes or no, but yes and no.”
Last July, the media reported that the Malaysian Pharmaceutical Society hoped the government would disclose the contents of the Pharmacy Bill that was protected by the Official Secrets Act.
The bill was last discussed in September last year.
In another development, Dzulkefly said he had met Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng yesterday to discuss the rise in the retail prices of cigarettes.
“There are a few more things to be refined. I will sort them out in the near future,” he said.