Types Of Pharmacy Practice

1. Hospital Pharmacy
2. Community Pharmacy
3. Industrial Pharmacy
4. Academic & Research
5. Enforcement
6. Corporate

Objectives Of Hospital Pharmacy Practice

1. Familiarize with different pharmacy set-ups with their types and functions.
2. Understand the procedures and policies related to pharmacy in a hospital.
3. Undertake the roles and responsibilities as a pharmacy technician in a hospital.
4. Recognize the changing roles or pharmacists in the society.

Type Of Boards Involving The Pharmaceutical Sector

The boards include:

• Pharmacy Board
• Poison Board
• Medicine Advertisement Board

Pharmacy Board acts under the Registration Of Pharmacies Act. It controls the registration and suspension of pharmacies and pharmacists. Besides, it plays a major role in setting up training premises as well as qualifications required for new pharmacies and pharmacists.

On the other hand, Poison Board works with the chemical and medication classifications. It functions to advise the Ministry Of Health on 4 major issues:

• Classifying new chemicals and medications into the Scheduled Poison List
• Removing a chemical or medication from the Poison List
• Altering the classification of a Scheduled Poison
• Altering the list of Psychotropic Substances
• Enforcing the Poison Act and its registrations

Medicine Advertisement Board is set up solely for controlling and authenticating advertisements regarding medications.

Pharmacy Divisions In Malaysia

Pharmacy division is split into 3 sub-divisions, known as:

• Pharmacy Enforcement Unit (PCU)
• Pharmacy Practice & Development (PPD)
• National Pharmacy Control Bureau  (NPCB)

Pharmacy division in Malaysia has 4 roles and responsibilities to fulfill in the public sectors as stated below.

1. Establish drug registration and control of the pharmacy industry to ensure the quality of medications through NPCB.

2. Protect consumers from hazardous drugs, misleading advertisements and suspicious practices involving drug use and sale through legislation that controls importations and sales of medications in the country as well as pharmacy in practice.

3. Provide comprehensive pharmaceutical services regarding medications to ensure quality and effectiveness, besides from providing updated, rational and cost-effective medications parallel to today's world.

4. Consolidates the pharmacy activities by the establishment of National Medicine Policy (NMP).

Healthcare Providers In Malaysia

In Malaysia, there are three types of healthcare providers, including:

• Public / Government
• Private
• Others

The establishments of government hospitals in all states in Malaysia symbolize the government as the main healthcare provider, where all costs are funded by the government. However, most of the time, patients are required to pay a small fee to the hospitals and the fee is quite reasonable with the care provided.

Private health providers are made up of private hospitals and clinics, where the funds are obtained by the charges offered to the patients. Perceptions towards private hospital and clinics are much better based on surveys done, since their funds and resources are quite extensive, enabling them to have better technologies and medicines. However, the fees charged to patients are high, but still, the price comprehends with the services offered.

On the other hand, other health providers consist of traditional and complementary practitioners. One example of these providers include herbs specialist, which involves in using the herbs to improve health conditions.

Healthcare Systems

What is the meaning of a healthcare system?

The answer is quite simple. A healthcare system is system where care for health is provided.

In Malaysia, healthcare systems are categorized into 3 category, as follows:

• Primary healthcare systems.
• Secondary healthcare systems.
• Tertiary healthcare systems.

Primary healthcare systems are made up of general practitioners, known as residents or doctors. They form a small to medium sized groups in solving common health cases including sore throat, fever, flu, common cold, diabetes, hypertension and etc. To solve these cases, main ambulatory care is provided. Ambulatory care is defined as personal healthcare consultation and intervention consisting of medical technologies delivered on an outpatient basis, where patients come to specified hospitals, meet the doctors and fetch their medicines and go home. Besides that, primary healthcare systems also play a major role in preventive measures, such as doing medical tests and administering vaccines.

On the other hand, secondary healthcare systems deal with more specific disorders such as acute renal failure. These disorders require the presence of one or more physicians specializing in internal medicines, pediatrics, gynecology or neurology. These physicians act as consultants. Patients being treated under this category usually passed the primary healthcare first (outpatient referrals), and when the underlying specific causes are determined, patients are rerouted back to the primary healthcare system for further interventions. The secondary healthcare system usually consists of hospital based clinics which provide care for hospitalized patients as well.

In the tertiary healthcare systems, specialists are involved. Example of specialists include pediatricians, gynecologists, cardiac surgeons, psychiatrists and hematologists. These systems are focused towards solving rare and complex cases, such as pituitary tumors and congenital malfunctions.

Vision & Mission Of The Ministry Of Health Malaysia

Vision : Malaysia will become a country of healthy individuals, families and societies trough fair and just, able and efficient appropriate technologies, customer friendly and suits the environmental health systems.These systems would comprehend with the quality, innovation, health promotion with respect to human integrity and promote individual responsibilities and societies participation towards enhancing life quality.

Mission: To build partnerships between healthcare systems in order to facilitate and motivate people in elevating their health potential, appreciating their health as a valuable asset and maintaining their health positively in order to improve life quality.