Don’t play doctor, pharmacists warned

NST: PUTRAJAYA: Pharmacists: Don’t play doctor.
This advice also goes to private laboratories which sometimes run a battery of tests with misleading results.
Director-General of Health Tan Sri Dr Ismail Merican is especially fed up with such practices as they continue to occur despite advice from the ministry.
In fact, there has been an increase in such cases due to poor enforcement, he said.
"The role of the pharmacist is to dispense medicines prescribed or recommended by doctors and not to examine and prescribe medicines," he told the New Straits Times.
The only things they are allowed to recommend are vitamins and supplements.
He knows of a case where a person collapsed after being prescribed a medicine by a pharmacist. The danger, as he sees it, is that some pharmacists are prescribing medicines for people with high cholesterol, diabetes and high and low blood pressure which are serious medical problems.
"They are playing with fire as wrong medication can lead to disastrous results," he said.
Dr Ismail warned pharmacists that they were treading on dangerous ground as even doctors were extra careful when treating patients with these complaints.
He also took private laboratories to task for charging exorbitant fees for tests that sometimes gave "absolutely wrong" results.
Dr Ismail personally handled a case where a patient came to him with a laboratory test that stated he had hepatitis B. But tests at Kuala Lumpur Hospital revealed that he did not have the disease.
"Screening is not just doing the test and saying hello and goodbye. It involves talking to the patient, counselling about the prospect of the test being false or positive, if positive what are the implications.
"One test does not conclude that a person should be put on a particular medication. Only doctors will know when to start medication for patients."
Dr Ismail said it was unacceptable for a person to be told that he had cancer or hepatitis B when he actually was healthy.
"It is totally unethical for laboratories to do a tumour marker test and conclude that a patient has a terminal illness like cancer."
Dr Ismail said the ministry was awaiting the Pathology Bill to be passed to make sure that tests were not done in a haphazard manner by unlicensed people and unscrupulous laboratories. He urged the public to file complaints with the ministry if they come across pharmacists prescribing medicines.
Malaysian Pharmaceutical Society president John C.P Chang admitted there were black sheep among the 4,500 pharmacists in the country.
"We are aware of it and we have informed all pharmacists to refrain from prescribing medications to people."
He said they were trained to carry out tests for cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure but not allowed to prescribe medicines.
"It’s the black sheep who are spoiling our name. They should be more responsible. I am very angry with irresponsible pharmacists and pharmacies," he added.
He urged the ministry not to let up in its efforts to bring such pharmacists to book.