The Indonesian Pharmacist Association disagreed with nurses who asked the Constitutional Court to allow non-pharmacists to prescribe and dispense prescription drugs, says a spokesman in Jakarta on Tuesday.
Prescription drugs should be prescribed and dispensed by competent pharmacists who have an adequate knowledge of drug use, dosages and treatments, said Indonesian Pharmacist Association chairman Dani Pratomo on Tuesday.
“The law aims to protect consumers,” he told reporters at the Sultan Hotel.
Nine nurses filed a judicial review request with the Constitutional Court in March that contested parts of the 2009 Health Law that prohibited nurses from prescribing or dispensing prescription drugs.
Misran, one of the plaintiffs and the head of a community healthcare center in Kutai Kartanegara, East Kalimantan, received a 3-month prison sentence after police found unlicensed prescription drugs in his house last year.
The 2009 Health Law says that people who dispense or prescribe medicines without state approval can face fines of Rp 100 million (US$11.000).
“For the sake of patients, we suggest that the government allow no leeway in interpreting the law,” said Dani.
The law does allow nurses or doctors to dispense medicines directly to patients in remote areas where drug stores and pharmacists are hard to find, he said.
“However, they should keep the drugs at community health centers, not in their homes,” he said.
Some drugs had special storage requirements, such as proper temperature settings and lighting, he added.
Dani said that the government must address a nationwide shortage of pharmacists, particularly in remote areas.
Less than 10 percent of Indonesian drug stores have pharmacists, and most of those stores were located in big cities. The government should require that recently-graduated pharmacists work in remote areas for at least two years, he said.
Reports from the Health Ministry and the University of Indonesia say that 93 percent of nurses in city and village community health centers prescribed and dispensed prescription drugs in 2005. (rdf)
