Viet Nam now has more than 10,500
drug stores, and more than 8,900 of them reach the Good Pharmacy Practice (GPP)
standard, he said in a conference on the role of pharmacies in taking care of
community's health held in Ha Noi yesterday, Aug 22.
The stores reaching GPP standard
are those supplying medicines of clear origin that come enclosed with necessary
information, as are drug retailers that sell prescription-based medicine and
provide consultancy for customers. Store owners must also possess
pharmaceutical certificates and the sellers must have professional
qualifications.
The stores must be at least
10sq.m in size and have an adequate amount of medicine preservation equipment.
According to Dat, the system
currently in place supplying medicine in rural areas was weak, and the medicine
not well preserved.
In northern Quang Ninh province
and in some provinces in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta such as Ben Tre and Ca
Mau, only 30 per cent of stores reach GPP standard, whereas in Ha Noi and HCM
City the rate is more than 90 per cent.
"The number of GPP drug
stores at present ensure the Ministry of Health's itinerary, however,
maintaining the results and continuing to improve the role of stores still
faces many obstacles," said Dat.
Unfortunately, residents are
still in the habit of buying medicine without prescriptions, while the ability
of medicine sellers to provide consultancy is unequal in cities and provinces,
according to Dat.
As a result, the administration
will complete a system of law and regulations for drug stores to meet GPP
standard. It will also strengthen pharmacy inspections and encourage more
in-store self-training.
The administration would also
disseminate medical programmes via multimedia formats to improve residents'
awareness of purchasing prescription-based medicine, and set up chains of
GPP-standard stores to make them easier for residents to access, said Dat.
Maintaining the GPP standard
required the co-ordination of agencies from grassroots levels, he said, before
adding that local authorities should supply information about drug stores to
medical stations to create a better understanding among doctors, pharmacists
and residents.
VietNamNet/VNS
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