Sending a question to the Ministry of Health, reader N.T.S.M said: "I am a college pharmacist at a pharmacy in Ho Chi Minh City (who is already named in the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health) for 1 year.
Please ask, now that I have returned to Hue to work at another pharmacy, can I accumulate time to get a practicing certificate?".
Regarding this issue, the Ministry of Health answers as follows:
Individuals requesting a Certificate of Pharmaceutical Practice must meet the conditions on professional qualifications, practice time at professional practice facilities in pharmacy and other conditions specified in articles from Article 13 to Article 22 of the Pharmacy Law.
At point c, clause 1, Article 2 of Decree No. 163/2025/ND-CP dated June 29, 2025 of the Government detailing a number of articles and measures to organize and guide the implementation of the Law on Pharmacy, it is stipulated that the components of the dossier of the practice time confirmation paper submitted in the dossier requesting the issuance of a Pharmacy Practice Certificate are as follows:
c) The certificate of practice time is issued according to Form No. 03 in Appendix I issued with this Decree. In case of practice at multiple facilities, the practice time is calculated as the total practice time at the facilities, but there must be a certificate of practice time of each facility.
In case of requesting a Certificate of Pharmaceutical Practice with different scope of operation and different practice time requirements, different professional practice facilities, the dossier must have a certificate of professional practice time and professional practice content of one or more facilities meeting the requirements of each scope and professional position.
In case the scope of professional activities has the same requirements for practice time and professional practice facilities, it is not required to have a separate certificate for each scope of professional activities".
Thus, in the case of Ms. N.T.S.M, if she meets the conditions for issuing a pharmaceutical practice certificate, has sufficient professional practice time (at one or more practice establishments) and has a certificate of practice time of each establishment as prescribed, she can submit a dossier and be considered for issuance of a pharmaceutical practice certificate as prescribed.
