I go to the hospital or clinic when I'm not feeling well. I tell the doctor my problems and she makes diagnosis and tells me what medication she will give me.
I walk outside to the waiting area and a nurse will call me to the counter. There, he gives me my medicine and tells me how to take them. I pay and I leave.
All this talk about medicine to be only prescribed by a doctor and then for a patient to have to go to a pharmacy somewhere else to get the medicine just sounds to troublesome.
I'm not concerned how systems are open to abuse over the other. Doctors dispensing medicine means they can manipulate the system. Pharmacy companies holding a monopoly mean they can abuse the alternative system.
I'm not concerned about how there may be cases currently where patients would rather go to a pharmacy after self-diagnosing and then convincing the pharmacist to sell them what drugs they think will cure them.
I'm not concerned about the lack of pharmacies in the rural areas or anywhere else around the country for that matter, which would mean that to make it a law to dispense medicine through pharmacies would be difficult.
I'm not concerned about private clinics who have apparently been offering a lower consultation fee because they can subsidise it with the revenue they make from dispensing medicine and will now have to increase their fees.
I'm not concerned if because of a cut in significant revenue due to the inability to dispense medicine by the private clinics, they will have to downsize and that a number of doctors and nurses could be out of jobs.
I'm not concerned if other countries that implement the pharmacy dispensing system like the United Kingdom have a national health insurance (which we don't have) which means patients have one less problem to worry about.
I'm not concerned if there could be new industry opportunities that might be created such as delivery services for medicine or even if there is potential to improve the current pharmacy services.
Of course this is strictly speaking from a consumer and patient point of view. Because as a consumer, all I really care about is getting the best quality service, at the best reasonable price and at the most convenient.
Zan Azlee
Thu Feb 26 2015
Speaking from a patient and consumer point of view, Zan Azlee just wants to get his medicine fast and easy.
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