MoE official highlights crucial role of pharmacists in healthcare system
A healthy society also depends on an empowered pharmacist and not only on the availability of low cost drugs. Two other big contributory factors are an increased allocation of budget for the healthcare system as well as the health insurance companies, said Dr Ola Al Ahdab, pharmaceutical advisor-training and development manager, UAE Ministry of Health, while talking to The Gulf Today on Thursday.
The government official was one of the participants at the three-day “First GCC Pharmacoeconomics Conference” held in Dubai from Dec.13-15.
At the gathering, she indicated the essential role of the pharmacists in the healthcare system, saying they must contribute to the rationalisation behind the usage of medicines and should help in the elimination of accompanying drug problems, control the high costs, as well as improve the standards of pharmaceutical services.
Pharmacoeconomics is more than the regulation of medicine prices and related services. It is about the rational utilisation of budget and resources for the effective and efficient treatment of patients, Al Ahdab said.
Al Ahdab believes added financial allocations would allow the selection of the “best treatments” possible. “We also have to review treatment protocols and guidelines,” she added.
She also talked about the health insurance firms when she referred back to the drug pricing. For her, if ever these companies “are mandated” and come into play in the healthcare systems, governments, which must “supervise (insurance firms’) performances, must make sure that all of the essential drugs and medicines (are included in the policies offered to clients).”
On the empowered pharmacists, Al Ahdab mentioned of the MoH website http://www.cpd-pharma.ae that carries all of the information needed by pharmacists across the country, in obtaining further trainings so they can catch up with the advancements in science and technology.
Source: Gulf today 16/12/2011