In the past two weeks, there are a lot of debates in the media on what is meant by patriotism. There are tons and tons of comments from the local Politicians, Political Parties, Hong Kong SAR Government officials, authoritative lawyers in Beijing and even the Central Government on patriotism. Even words of our late Chairman Deng Xiao Ping twenty years ago are quoted in the interpretation of patriotism. Their objective, I do believe, is to find out a common platform on which Hong Kong Political Reform can flourish and a direction towards which Hong Kong can prosper under the One Country Two Systems created by our late Chairman Deng Xiao Ping.
To be patriots, what we doctors can do is to exercise our professional rights to provide tender loving care to our patients and citizens of Hong Kong. Not only should we treasure our rights established under the Medical Registration Ordinance, we should respect the rights of other professionals and trades. Not only should we have the duty to properly manage our patients whole-heartedly, we should see that our patients would not be cheated and they should be protected in the course of medical management.
Not long ago, the HKDU Council met Dr. E K Yeoh (Please refer to October 2003 HKDU Bulletin for details) and voiced our concern on the significant drop in patient attendance in private clinics. However, statistical results showed that the patients attendance rates in the public clinics and clinics of registered Chinese Medicine Practitioners have also decreased. We believe that there must be a significant number of patients shifted to the medicine companies and dispensaries for ease of saving consultation at doctors offices. Dr. Yeoh was determined, in the meeting, to wipe out any illegal drug supplies or sales at these stores by sourcing more money and manpower into the Department of Health (DoH) to make sure that the Pharmacy and Poisons Ordinance, Cap.138, can be further enforced. Unfortunately, it is the policy of the DoH that it only acts on complaints. That is the reason why we have established an easy channel of complaints in collaboration with the DoH for our members. I am sure you would agree with me that while patients would complain against doctors, they would never complain against medicine companies or dispensaries for obvious reasons.
Up to now, there are altogether 15 suspected cases of drug stores selling prescription medicine without prescriptions and 3 suspected cases of improper drug labelling by drug stores as reported by members to the HKDU Secretariat and these cases were immediately referred to the DoH. After thorough investigations by the DoH, two complaints are dismissed due to inadequate evidence while the rest are being under further investigations by the Police.
However, your Council was approached recently by a member who expressed the concern of certain medicine companies and dispensaries. They opined that we, HKDU, by collaborating with DoH and Dr. E K Yeoh in such a manner do create a lot of hardship for them. They said that their livelihood was jeopardized and they requested HKDU not to promote such channel further to our members. After all, they are forced (by customers repeated requests) to supply prescription medicine without prescriptions to their customers only very exceptionally and would not jeopardize the practice of us, doctors. At the end of the day, the drug store keepers used to refer back those customers to nearby clinics if these customers cannot get well with the supplied medication.
Your Council has deliberated on the issue and concluded that it is our prime duty to safeguard the health of our citizens. We should not yield to threats made by others who may report improper drug labelling by doctors to the Medical Council of Hong Kong. One important thing is that we should always abide by the Laws of Hong Kong and should act according to our Codes of Practice to uphold our reputation.
From now on, make sure you label your drugs properly. For drug labelling by doctors, please refer to my message entitled Drug labelling in October 2003 edition of HKDU Bulletin. According to Dr. Leung Ting Hung, Deputy Director of Health, apart from the Code of Practice issued by the Pharmacy and Poisons Board of Hong Kong and the Pharmacy and Poisons Ordinance, Cap. 138, which govern the manner of supply of medicines for the Authorized Seller of Poisons (Please refer to the letter elaborating the Role of Pharmacists by the Pharmacy and Poisons Board of Hong Kong dated 16th February 2004 printed on Page 11 of this Bulletin), the following rules also apply to medicine companies and dispensaries.
For Medicine Companies :
1. They can only sell or supply drugs in original packages to clients;
2. They are not allowed to open up drug packs and then sell individual tablets or capsules to clients.
For Dispensaries (with Pharmacists):
1. They should supply or sell drugs with proper Drug Labelling;
2. The format for Drug labelling should be same as that for doctors with the name of the dispensaries imprinted on the drug bags.
Dear Colleagues, we showed our loving care to our patients last year during SARS saga. It is high time that we should show our patriotism by going one step further to protect the health of our patients in the course of management. Do join us in our campaign towards total health care to the community.
Dr. Yeung Chiu Fat Henry