Vietnam's health care system needs a national co-ordination network to ensure the safety of medications at all levels, Deputy Minister of Health Cao Minh Quang has said.
The network would focus on mechanisms for monitoring and reporting all safety issues, he said, noting the present inadequate reporting system could not provide information for the operation of national regulatory authorities.
"On the other hand, the abuse of drug prescriptions, the non-compliance with Good Pharmacy Practice rules, the habit of self-treatment of patients are key matters to be addressed to ensure medication safety for patients," he said.
World Health Organisation Representative in Vietnam Doctor Jean Marc Olive said there seemed to be a focus on the reporting of adverse drug reactions to medicines.
While adverse reactions were important, other issues on medicine safety that affected the patients and harmed public health in general must be given attention, he said, referring to medication errors and quality defects that often went unreported.
"These concerns cannot be ignored and we cannot proceed to embark on sophisticated adverse reaction reporting while ignoring the other safety issues that matter most to the patient and the society as a whole," he said.
It was most important that the hospitals were involved, he said. They were the first point of contact for patients and where processes for treatment were instituted.
"Ensuring safety of medicines at that level and setting a mechanism to initiate immediate response and prevention is the key to ensuring safety," he said.
Luong Ngoc Khue, director of the ministry's Department of Medical Services Administration, said major hurdles were the shortage of pharmacists and the limited competency of existing human resources.
Reports from 1,006 hospitals nationwide show that there are 11,080 pharmacists. The ratio of pharmacist per 100 hospital beds is 0.74, four times lower than the standard level and the ratio of pharmacist per doctor is 0.034, two times lower than the standard level.
The proportion of pharmacists who held bachelor degrees was only 0.16 while it was supposed to be three times higher, Khue said.
In terms of infrastructure, 35.7 percent of pharmacy departments at district-level hospitals didn't have telephones while only 60.1 percent of hospitals were equipped with computers with internet access.
Although 90 percent of hospital pharmacy departments had a medicine information centre, except central hospitals, in most of the hospitals at the provincial level and all of them at the district level there was no particular drug reference software in use.
Low English skills also hindered hospitals from taking advantage of huge databases available on the internet while Vietnamese drug reference websites were not reliable enough.
Khue said the ministry will continue to run capacity building for health care staff to improve the quality of medication use. /.
The network would focus on mechanisms for monitoring and reporting all safety issues, he said, noting the present inadequate reporting system could not provide information for the operation of national regulatory authorities.
"On the other hand, the abuse of drug prescriptions, the non-compliance with Good Pharmacy Practice rules, the habit of self-treatment of patients are key matters to be addressed to ensure medication safety for patients," he said.
World Health Organisation Representative in Vietnam Doctor Jean Marc Olive said there seemed to be a focus on the reporting of adverse drug reactions to medicines.
While adverse reactions were important, other issues on medicine safety that affected the patients and harmed public health in general must be given attention, he said, referring to medication errors and quality defects that often went unreported.
"These concerns cannot be ignored and we cannot proceed to embark on sophisticated adverse reaction reporting while ignoring the other safety issues that matter most to the patient and the society as a whole," he said.
It was most important that the hospitals were involved, he said. They were the first point of contact for patients and where processes for treatment were instituted.
"Ensuring safety of medicines at that level and setting a mechanism to initiate immediate response and prevention is the key to ensuring safety," he said.
Luong Ngoc Khue, director of the ministry's Department of Medical Services Administration, said major hurdles were the shortage of pharmacists and the limited competency of existing human resources.
Reports from 1,006 hospitals nationwide show that there are 11,080 pharmacists. The ratio of pharmacist per 100 hospital beds is 0.74, four times lower than the standard level and the ratio of pharmacist per doctor is 0.034, two times lower than the standard level.
The proportion of pharmacists who held bachelor degrees was only 0.16 while it was supposed to be three times higher, Khue said.
In terms of infrastructure, 35.7 percent of pharmacy departments at district-level hospitals didn't have telephones while only 60.1 percent of hospitals were equipped with computers with internet access.
Although 90 percent of hospital pharmacy departments had a medicine information centre, except central hospitals, in most of the hospitals at the provincial level and all of them at the district level there was no particular drug reference software in use.
Low English skills also hindered hospitals from taking advantage of huge databases available on the internet while Vietnamese drug reference websites were not reliable enough.
Khue said the ministry will continue to run capacity building for health care staff to improve the quality of medication use. /.
