The Ministry of Health is drafting a Circular regulating prescriptions and prescriptions of pharmaceuticals and biological products for outpatient treatment.
Principles of drug prescription
According to the draft, drugs can only be prescribed after there are results of medical examination and diagnosis; prescribing drugs in accordance with disease diagnosis and severity; prescribing drugs must achieve safety, reasonableness and effectiveness goals.
The prescription of medicine must comply with one of the following documents:
Diagnosis and treatment instructions issued or recognized by the Minister of Health;
Instructions for diagnosis and treatment of medical examination and treatment facilities established according to the provisions of Article 6 of Circular No. 21/2013/TT-BYT dated August 8, 2013 of the Minister of Health regulating the organization and operation of the Drug and Treatment Council in hospitals in cases where there are no diagnosis and treatment instructions from the Ministry of Health;
The drug use guidance document accompanying the drug registration dossier has been licensed by the Ministry of Health;
The drug use guidance document accompanied by the drug registration dossier of the original pharmaceutical, biological reference drug has been licensed by the Ministry of Health;
Instructions for using drugs with drugs that have been permitted for circulation;
Current national pharmacy of Vietnam.
The number of drugs prescribed is implemented according to the Diagnosis and Treatment Guidelines or is enough to be used but not exceeding 30 days, except in cases of prescribing addictive drugs; prescribing addictive drugs to relieve pain for cancer patients or AIDS patients; prescribing psychopaths and precursors according to regulations.
For patients who have to see 3 or more specialties per day, the head of the medical examination and treatment facility or the person authorized by the head of the medical examination and treatment facility (head of the medical examination department, head of the clinical department) or the person in charge of the medical examination and treatment facility after reviewing the medical examination results of the specialties directly prescribing or assigning a doctor with a suitable specialty to prescribe drugs for the patient.
The draft clearly states that the contents specified in Clause 15, Article 6 of the Pharmacy Law are not included in the drug list, specifically: Drugs and substances not for disease prevention and treatment purposes; drugs not yet legally licensed for circulation in Vietnam; functional foods; cosmetics.
List of drugs prescribed
The draft clearly states the general requirements for prescribing drugs as follows: Record all items printed in the prescription or medical examination book of the patient; record the personal identification number or citizen identification number of the patient (if any); record the address where the patient is residing or temporarily residing: house number, street, residential group or village/hamlet/hamlet/hamlet, commune/ward/ Town, district/city/city in the province, province/city.
For children under 72 months old, the age, weight, name of the child's father or mother or the person who took the child to see a doctor or treat the disease must be recorded.
Record the prescription period for drugs with the value of purchasing and receiving drugs including the date and month of the year but not earlier than the prescription date for removing addictive drugs, spirit drinks, and precursors. In case the expiration date of the prescription is not stated, this content must be removed.
Prescribe the medicine according to regulations as follows:
For drugs with an active ingredient: According to the international common name (INN, generic). For example, a drug with the active ingredient paracetamol, with a content of 500mg, should be listed as follows: paracetamol 500mg.
According to international common name + (commercial name). For example, drugs with the active ingredient paracetamol, content of 500mg, commercial name is A, have the drug name as follows: paracetamol (A) 500mg.
For drugs with many active ingredients or medical biological products, they are recorded under commercial names. The draft clearly states that the drug name, concentration/concentration, quantity/component, and dosage include the number of uses per time and the number of uses per day, the route of use, the time of use of each drug, and the number of days of use. If the prescription contains a poison, the poison must be prescribed before prescribing other drugs.
