New prescription needed on drugs

The Society of Hospital Pharmacists carried out a survey last year that not only highlighted a lack of drug education among users of our health care system, but also exposed inefficiencies in the pharmaceutical services provided by the Hospital Authority.

It showed that about 25 per cent of patients with chronic diseases - accounting for about half of the authority's total drug budget - were not taking their medications as prescribed, meaning an estimated HK$100 million is wasted every year.

The society also found about 20 per cent of elderly patients are admitted to accident and emergency wards with drug-related problems, such as inappropriate use of medication, poor management of side effects and taking discontinued drugs.

The government knows there is a shortage of doctors and an increased workload at public hospitals, but it is reluctant to give pharmacists a bigger role in treating patients with drug-related problems.

For Hospital Authority patients with multiple chronic diseases, drug treatment is an appropriate course that keeps people out of hospital. However, high levels of medication (17 per cent of outpatients were prescribed with five or more drug items) over a long period (20 per cent were given at least four months' supply of drugs at a time) can create problems.

Many of these problems stem from a shortage of pharmacists under the authority, with some pharmacists taking care of more than 400 outpatients per day.