Have u ever wondered how doctors in Malaysia are allowed to dispense Medications??
In the older days, when Tanah Melayu was under the British Colonization, the british had problems especially when the people got sick with various diseases. So, they built King Edward College in Singapore [now, known as National University of Singapore] to educate the people of Tanah Melayu to become doctors and pharmacists.. however, the intake of students to do Pharmacy, was much smaller, compared to those who were accepted to do Medicine.. for your Information, King Edward College is where Tun Dr. Mahathir and his wife did their MBBS. and that was where our former Minister of Education, Tan Sri Dato' Sri Musa did his degree in Pharmacy. Ok, so, during the second world war, KEC was closed.. and it is during this time when the british desperately needs Pharmacists and doctors because alot of the people had contracted various types of diseases. Unfortunately, the numbers of pharmacists in Tanah Melayu was still insufficient.. compared to the numbers of Available doctors.. so, the British decided to 'Termporarily Allow" Doctors to dispense with a hope that,in the future the number of pharmacists will increase.. but that didnt happen.. Unfortunately. because it's the mentality of the society today that having the title DR. is like 'WOW'.. it's like everything to have a DR before ur name.. akibatnye.. every parents wants their children to become a doctor.. Pharmacists, semakin dilupakan.. worse still.. the role of Pharmacists tidak diperlukan langsung.. sad aint it?
Doctors,they learn about the human body.very detail.ye lah.belajar pon 5 years.Lame ok.Anyways, That DOES NOT mean that they are experts in drugs. i'll give u a situation. A 5 year old girl has cough but unproductive. meaning the girl couldnt cough the flam out. Some doctor (not all ya?) would MOST probably prescribe her with an orange flavoured cough syrup. the normal one u get from MOST clinics and even hospitals. it's usually BROWN in colour,dark brown for adults.
A pharmacists would say THAT brown thing is BENA. it is an antitussive, one that gives soothing effects BY Suppressing cough. yes it can be given to adults coz we can just cough the thing out,kan? but it will not help the little girl remove the flam.She's only 5! and kids at these tender age tend to vomit it out and then yada yada yada! Poor little girl. a Bena Syrup wont do the magic. She should be given a mucolytics instead. only a pharmacists can explain the rationale of why mucolytics instead of Bena the brown cough syrup for small children.
I am not saying that doctors arent good. of course they are! they spent 5 years of studying(semua lah) to become a Doctor.but it is best that we do what we're supposed to do.Doctors diagnose patients, and prescribe. and pharmacists can consult the patients on how to take the drugs, what are the side effects of the ubat, and help the patient understand better on the drugs that they will have to take rather than some one who only knows "ubat ni mengantuk. ambik 2 kali sehari selepas makan"kan? At least patient tu tau la.. owh it is Amoxicillin rather than antibiotics.lets just put it this way. why do u go and see a doctor when u're sick? because they are the experts in diagnosis.yes! as simple as that
some might say my opinions are biased. but,i believe that my justifications are correct. we study pharmacy for four years with hopes that we could serve the community better. Bukan 'cik makan ubat ni 2 kali lepas makan'. we dont want that do we? from my observations, ramai orang yg dtg pharmacies to buy medications.just like the story about the 5 year old girl i wrote about. sometimes these ppl know what doctors would prescribe them, and these ppl know what they need. a mucolytics not a Bena.
a friend of mine who's currently based in Otago Uni doing medicine told me that, pharmacists help by making doctors life easier. xpayah susah2 nak go through the hassle to understand the pharmacokinetics of the drugs when u already have pharmacists. owh, then comes the money problem. some ppl say "kacau my periuk nasi" because obviously the bulk of the profits are from the medications that they sell. owh Lord. well. i dont want to comment on that. not now.
I believe that Doctors and pharmacists in Malaysia should co-operate. work synergistically.remember we are Health Care Providers. Government should promote the importance of pharmacists in Malaysia. and instead of sending loads and loads of students abroad to do medicine, why not send some brilliant ones too to become pharmacists. we are still short of pharmacists in government hospitals. ape ni? come on la! dentist pon! we should Balanced everything out. in this world, xde yg lebih important. semua sama penting. we need engineers to build buildings, roads, etc. etc. but we need architechs as well to design the buildings, right? and my suggestions to parents, try pharmacy instead. We pharmacists will keep on fighting to get our rights back to dispense.
