Trends many people choose
"My father has a chronic illness so he has to go to the hospital every month for a check-up and buy medicine according to the doctor's prescription. I find buying medicine on the app very convenient, the medicine is delivered to my home and, importantly, there is enough medicine, no need to jostle at the pharmacy" - Mr. Do Minh Hoang (Nam Tu Liem - Hanoi) shared.
Buying medicine online is gradually becoming a trend, bringing many conveniences to people. Of the 52,000 e-commerce websites approved by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, there are 900 websites with letters starting with "medicine" or "pharma". Thus, it can be seen that the need to buy and sell medicine online is quite popular. However, it seems that management is still open.
Online drug sales at large pharmacy systems are managed according to procedures and are an attractive sales channel. According to a survey conducted by PV on the website of pharmacy system A, when looking to buy antibiotics, users cannot immediately add the medicine to the shopping cart or proceed to payment, but must click on "Consult now" or "Send prescription". After you send the prescription, a pharmacy employee will call to advise and sell the medicine according to the prescription if available.
However, sending a prescription to buy medicine online has exposed many loopholes. Some people still use antibiotic prescriptions from 2020 to buy medicine online. The prescription is still accepted, the pharmacy still delivers the medicine, regardless of whether the prescription is still suitable for the patient's medical condition or not.
For example, the "prescription" prescribed via Zalo below includes antibiotics and many other drugs. However, without the name and signature of the prescribing doctor, without knowing what disease it is used to treat, the patient can easily buy the medicine by forwarding the prescription via Zalo to the pharmacy. The medicine is delivered to the door by the shipper (delivery person).
Or in some cases, a prescription consisting of just a few handwritten lines of the drug name on a piece of paper is still accepted. Thus, compliance with the regulations on the sale of prescription drugs seems to be done only in a perfunctory manner.
While large pharmacy systems implement regulations in the sale of antibiotics and prescription drugs, many other locations easily deliver drugs directly to customers, without requiring a prescription or knowing the reason for the customer's order.
Online sales of prescription drugs should not be allowed yet.
Discussing this issue, Delegate Pham Trong Nghia - Member of the Social Committee of the National Assembly - said: Currently, the draft Law on Pharmacy (amended) stipulates that only online sales of non-prescription drugs are allowed. In case of medical isolation due to infectious diseases in group A, patients are allowed to buy prescription drugs.
Regarding the suggestion to expand the online sale of prescription drugs to accommodate online and remote medical examination and treatment, Mr. Nghia said that if such a regulation is to be implemented, there must be very good and controllable prescription data.
However, Mr. Nghia also frankly stated that in reality, this data system is not yet guaranteed and needs further careful evaluation because the current state of our infrastructure has more negative impacts than positive impacts.
"I think that online sales of prescription drugs should not be allowed, even when patients seek medical examination and treatment online. Everything here is aimed at controlling the quality of drugs well, with the ultimate goal of serving patients best," Mr. Nghia emphasized.
Mr. Nghia added that international experience shows that many countries also allow people to buy prescription drugs online but require a complete prescription database.
"In the future, when there is a complete prescription database, each prescription will have a code, QR code, and when buying medicine online, the patient will scan the prescription and the pharmacy will have access to the prescription data, identifying the correct patient who needs this medicine. At that time, it will be possible to allow the online sale of prescription drugs," said Mr. Nghia.
