The Health Ministry today said there were no plans for now to separate the dispensing of medicine for treatment.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam said clinics would continue to dispense medicine as this would help control the cost of treatment at private clinics.

“This system has been in existence in the country and has been greatly beneficial to the people. There are no plans to change this,” he told reporters in Parliament today.

Speaking to The Rakyat Post, Dr Subramaniam said the health system in the country was not ready yet for the separation of treatment and medicine dispensing.

He pointed out that in countries where the system of dispensing and treatment was separate, the cost of medicine was later reimbursed by the government or the national health care system.

“I am not against the idea. It’s just that this is not the time for such a system to be implemented. Perhaps we could later introduce a system where the decision would be left to the patient’s discretion,” he added.

Earlier, Malaysia Medical Association immediate past president Datuk Dr N.K.S. Tharmaseelan had said that general practitioners should not be stripped of their dispensing rights as it will make private primary healthcare more expensive.

Tharmaseelan said the one-stop consultation and dispensing of medicines by general practitioners has kept the price of healthcare affordable.

source:The Rakyat post