Chan Siok Yee

Abstract

Malaysia currently has a total 19,260 registered pharmacists with active practising certificate which is regulated by the Pharmacy Board of Malaysia and relevant pharmacy laws and regulations. In tandem with the evolvement of medicine, pharmacists are responsible for ensuring the safe and effective use of medications, and they play a key role in providing healthcare to the public as a frontliner, educator and clinician. For instance, in community pharmacies, pharmacists dispense prescription and over-the-counter medications, compound extemporaneous preparation, provide medication, immunization, travel medicine and disease advice to patients, and offer other value added services such as medication adherence tool, blood pressure and blood glucose monitoring. It is worth noting that with the implementation of Regulation 23 of Poison Regulation as early as year 1952, dispensing separation have been fully implemented in all public hospitals whereby all supply of medications should be solely on prescription and the supply to be recorded, labelled and dispensed at the pharmacy. With medication dispensing as the core professional duties, hospital pharmacists are also responsible for the procurement, storage, and distribution of medications, as well as the preparation of radioactive diagnostic, cytotoxic drug and sterile products. They also actively involved in patient care, such as pharmacokinetics, pharmacotherapy services, medication therapy adherence clinic, medication reconciliation, reviewing medication orders and providing drug and poison information to healthcare professionals.