In the best interests of patients

The case in which 152 patients seeking treatment for stomach problems were given a mislabelled diabetes drug at the clinic of private medical practitioner Ronald Li Sai-lai is the worst medical scandal in Hong Kong in living memory. The mix-up triggered low blood-sugar levels in 65 patients, 18 of whom were sent to hospital. Four of them died.

The fiasco has exposed the long-standing problems of the way in which private doctors run their clinics. Patients' interests are not necessarily put above other practical considerations. It has also rekindled the call to offer patients the choice of having their medicine dispensed at pharmacies rather than in clinics.

The so-called medical assistants responsible for dispensing drugs in most private clinics are far from professional. Most have no formal training, have limited medical knowledge and know little about pharmacy. Worse, they are often overworked. They have to register patients, take their temperatures, process medical records and handle the medicines.

It was only a matter of time before things went wrong. Medical science is advancing so rapidly that even doctors have difficulty keeping up. Untrained assistants cannot be expected to be familiar with the many new medicines. In fact, it is grossly unfair to ask them to take on important dispensing duties.

The only solution is to let the professionals do the job. The dispensing of drugs is handled by professional pharmacists in all public hospitals. Doctors are responsible for prescriptions, which are then handled by pharmacists. This division of duties also serves as an additional safeguard, as given their expertise, pharmacists can recheck the prescriptions.

However, some doctors with vested interests in a private practice are opposed to the idea of delegating the dispensing duties to pharmacists. To ease public pressure, they have put forward some unjustified and impractical counterproposals. It has been suggested, for example, that taxpayers' money be used to train the medical assistants.

This amounts to an insult to pharmacists. The proposal presumes that anyone with no relevant tertiary education can easily be trained to handle dispensing duties professionally.