Pharmacies slow
to adopt standards
Bác sĩ Huỳnh Đỗ Phi
(11-06-2008)
A drugstore on Ly Tu Trong Street, one of the biggest in Can Tho City,
is expected to achieve Good Pharmacy Practice standards this year. — VNS
Photo Thanh Vu
HA NOI — Lack of equipment and business competence could prevent the cities
of Da Nang and Can Tho from setting up 30 pharmacies with Good Pharmacy
Practice (GPP) standards by the end of this year.
The target was set by the Ministry of Health and affects four major cities,
including Ha Noi and HCM City. It is part of a new plan to make sure all
pharmacies nationwide by 2012 have a pharmacist’s certificate, drugs stored
at below 30 degrees Celsius, proper pricing for goods and clear labelling
for medicines showing the origin and instructions for use. If a drug store
does not meet these standards in the allotted time, it will be shut down.
While Ha Noi has built 45 GPP pharmacies and HCM City 21, there have been
no new drug stores set up in Da Nang or Can Tho, according to a recent
report by the Drug Administration of Viet Nam.
The target was difficult to reach because many local pharmacists who rented
their shops were not sure if they would recover capital spent on more
advanced equipment, said acting director of the Da Nang Health Department
Doan Vo Kim Anh.
"If they invest too much in upgrading pharmacies, they would likely
lose capital when their house-rental contracts expire."
There are more than 500 clinics and healthcare centres with pharmacies
in the central port city, of which three have recently started procedures
to apply for the GPP certificate.
A key challenge was that many pharmacists in the city buy drugs from different
sources with unstable quality and price, sometimes they sold drugs with
no stated origin and patients bought drugs with no prescription.
Money was the main problem, said pharmacist Le Van Can, owner of a pharmacy
on Hoang Van Thai Street. "The new standard is good for consumers
but some worry that customers will not buy medicine from GPP pharmacies
if they have to have a doctor’s prescription first. Pharmacists are concerned
they will not have enough money to upgrade their facilities."
At the moment, it was a matter of pot luck when patients went to the drug
store, said Tran Ca, a resident of Da Nang City’s Son Tra District.
"I don’t know anything about GPP standards. I only go to the doctor
when my health is really bad, never for something slight like the flu.
If I’m lucky, I get the medicines I need for a good price; if I’m unlucky,
they’re expensive or fake."
An inspection of 14 drugstores in hospitals and nearly 20 private pharmacies
in Can Tho in April revealed price differences from 1 per cent to 30 per
cent between the hospitals and private drugstores.
Several hospitals’drugstores were found to sell from four to 17 kinds
of drugs, with price differences ranging from 1 to 20 per cent. Several
private drugstores sold from six to 18 medicines, with price differences
ranging from 1 to 27.5 per cent. Many other medicines were sold at the
same prices.
Can Tho Health Department inspectors said that pharmaceutical companies
always reduced the prices according to the amount of products sold. If
pharmacies bought a large amount of drugs, they would be sold at lower
prices.
No choice
The limited size of some local stores was holding them back from achieving
the GPP standard, said the acting head of the General Hospital’s Pharmaceutical
Product Department in Cai Rang District, Nguyen Thi Hoang Dieu.
Out of all the hospital drugstores and private pharmacies throughout Can
Tho city, only about 15 are expected to reach the GPP standard this year.
Another problem was that many store owners were employing unqualified
staff to man the shops, said Deputy Director of the Can Tho Health Department
Nguyen Bich Le. "Under GPP standards, only qualified pharmacists
can hand out drugs and give people instructions on how to use them."
This point was echoed by chairman of the Viet Nam Pharmaceutical Companies‘
Association Dong Viet Thang. "Many sellers sell drugs without telling
people how to take them."
He said there were nearly 40,000 drugstores nationwide: an average 2,000
people per pharmacy. But these were not evenly distributed.
According to the pharmaceutical sector’s development strategy by 2010,
each person will spend US$12 to $15 per year on medicine. If this end
is to be achieved, relevant sectors need to find ways to tackle obstacles
and boost public awareness on the importance of implementing high pharmaceutical
standards. — VNS
best
Phi Huynh-Do, MD, MPH
Community medicine officer (VAMA)
