Mahathir: Doctors should give out medicines and not pharmacists
SERDANG: Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is of the opinion that doctors should prescribe and dispense medicines instead of patients having to go to pharmacies to get their prescription drugs.
He said the doctors should continue with what they are doing now instead of having to burden patients.
"It is more convenient for patients as they seek medical help at any time, it would be easier if the doctors can give the necessary medications on the spot without them needing to wait further," he said when asked at the collaboration agreement between Perdana University and the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) ceremony here today. Dr Mahathir is the Chancellor of Perdana University.
"When I was a doctor I took my medicine bag with me and gave whatever medicines needed immediately. The patient wouldn't need to wait."he said.
Although he admitted that by pharmacists dispensing medications, the margin for an error of giving out the wrong medications or wrong dosage may be lower, he said, a human error can be committed even by a pharmacist.
"If its late at night and the pharmacist is sleepy, the mistake can still happen. It would be more convenient and cost efficient for the doctors to be able to dispense medicines instead," he added.
Patients would need to obtain medications from pharmacies if the Health Ministry accepts the proposed "Doctors diagnose, pharmacists dispense" system.
While the system may cause some inconvenience to patients, pharmacists say it will help bring down the prices of medicine and give doctors access to many more drugs to prescribe.
While nothing has been finalised yet, Health Ministry has said its main priority would be to ensure quality and safety.
Dr Mahathir admits that medicine in Malaysia has come a long way from his childhood days were a medicine man or a bomoh was often sought to cure ailments, to the current health care which is far more sophisticated.
"Now, I had my chest opened up and 'messed around'. My heart was stopped, my lung was stopped, I was technically dead! But I survived! That's how much medicine has progressed. Back then if a person's chest was opened up, he would be dead!"
He said the breakthroughs in stem cell research is progressing and one day organs damaged can be replaced entirely by artificial organs.
At the signing agreement, Perdana University will work with UCSD as this partnership is expected to bring tremendous opportunities to both institutions and would drive Perdana University towards its goal of achieving international distinction as well as recognition as an elite and successful academic institution.
The 10 year joint collaboration will focus on enhancing and implementing a forward thinking medical curriculum, a model for comprehensive patient care and a platform for innovative research.