There has been a recent increase in lobbying efforts to monopolise the dispensing of medications to patients, which is of concern to the public and medical community as it is essentially tampering with the patient’s right to choose where or from whom they can get their medication from.

Even as the general public voice their concern against this proposal, its proponents seem bent to make their vision a reality. Will they be accountable when the cost goes up and the quality of healthcare declines?

Our present system is cost-effective and allows the patient to have a choice to get their medication from the pharmacist or the doctor and from the feedback given by our patients, the preference is for a ‘one-stop system’ which logically is more convenient.

It will be grossly inaccurate to imply that the existing system in Malaysia is defective and needs to be replaced. This system has worked well to the convenience of many generations of Malaysian patients and a system practiced in the UK is not necessarily more suitable here.

In the normal course of a doctor-patient encounter, the responsibility of the doctor does not just end with making of a diagnosis and prescription of the appropriate medication but also to ensure that the patient is duly informed, takes it as prescribed and monitors the patient with regards to response and side-effects.

When you consider the weather conditions, traffic problems, accessibility of pharmacies and other logistic issues that will crop up as a result of this move, the proposal for the monopolistic system suggested by the Malaysian Pharmaceutical Society makes a lot less sense.

Sick people who are already weakened by the burden of their illness should not be forced additional stress of having to hunt around for their medications in the hot, traffic-congested conditions that are prevailing in most towns in Malaysia.

Can you really justify to a mother whose children are feverish and ill that she needs to lug them all the way across busy streets just to get their medications when they could easily have done so at the clinic?

We believe the way forward is to encourage professional partnerships between pharmacists and their neighbouring private clinics so as to provide patients with more choices.

This rather than changing the system to one that will be detrimental to the rights of patients and increase the cost of medical care significantly.

We do encourage members of the Malaysian Pharmaceutical Society to continue to improve their services to the public. Their prime objective should be to complement the existing system so as to allow patients to have more choice.

The writer is president Federation of Private Medical Practitioners' Associations Malaysia (PMPAM).