Way back in October 2011, I wrote this. In just 6 years, the government reversed their decision from a 4 year compulsory service for pharmacist to 2 years ( including 1 year internship). The reason was obvious that the government was running out of post. Yesterday, our government has further liberalised the situation by allowing fresh graduate pharmacist to do their internship in private sector! It was reported here and attached below. It is a clear indication that the government is not being able to provide a job for all pharmacy graduates like before. Would the same situation happen to doctors soon? Only time will tell.
Personally, what are these pharmacists going to learn from private retail pharmacy stores? Who is going to guide them ? Are they going to become a mere shopkeeper? At least if they are given a job in a private hospitals, there are senior people and doctors who may be of help in their training. I seriously feel that our entire medical system is going down the drain with poor planning, inadequate training and with a “license to kill”………….. Would they soon ask private hospitals to conduct housemanship training? Well, being in bolehland, nothing is impossible!
Whatever said, we still need a lot of pharmacists in rural areas. This is the reason the government is mulling special incentives for pharmacies to be set up in rural areas. This was also reported 2 days ago over here ( see below). Right at the end of the news, it is mentioned that we will achieve the WHO pharmacy to population ratio of 1:2000 by 2016! Sounds familiar? what happens after that? Jobless pharmacist?
The Malaysian Pharmacy Society has already started the zoning system in preparation for the 1Care system. I had written about this over here and it is also mentioned below.
So, can anyone still deny that doctors can become jobless? We are just producing too many graduates in every field. The private colleges are having a field time producing half baked graduates for the sake of money……………. The realisation is simply tooooooo late!!
Ministry relaxes pharmacists’ training scope
Pharmaceutical services senior director Datuk Eisah Abdul Rahman said through the liberalisation process, pharmacy graduates can now go through their training outside of government hospitals and facilities.
“They can undergo their PRP training at private pharmacy facilities, such as private hospitals, industries, in research and development and community pharmacies,” she said at the opening of Cosway’s 100th pharmacy store in Bandar Sri Damansara, here, yesterday.
The compulsory training introduced in 2004 was also shortened from a three-year period to only one year and was made effective in September 2011.
The move, she said, was to encourage local pharmacists to get involved in the private pharmaceutical sector.
“We welcome applications from community pharmacies to be listed as training facilities for graduates.
“Those interested will have to get recognition through the accreditation of community pharmacy programme under the Malaysian Pharmacy Board.”
Eisah said the premises must also fulfil the rules and regulations set in the 2011 Community Pharmacy Benchmarking Guidelines.
As of Jan 31, the current pharmacist-people ratio stood at 1:2,947, with a total number of 10,250 pharmacists registered in the country.
The opening of the 100th Cosway pharmacy store was attended by Berjaya Group founder Tan Sri Vincent Tan and Cosway Corporation chief executive officer Al Chuah.
Read more: Ministry relaxes pharmacists’ training scope – General – New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/nation/general/ministry-relaxes-pharmacists-training-scope-1.224323#ixzz2M0yeMb6E
Health Ministry mulls incentives for opening community pharmacies
“The Ministry views the situation (lack of pharmacies in rural areas) seriously as many such pharmacies are only mushrooming in the city and concentrated in certain regions,” he told reporters after opening the 100th Cosway Pharmacy outlet in Damansara, near here, on Sunday.
Liow in his speech text that was read by the Health Ministry’s Pharmaceutical services division senior director Datuk Eisah A Rahman, said according to the ministry’s statistics, there were 10,006 registered pharmacies and 1,834 community pharmacies throughout the country.
The concentration of community pharmacies is in Selangor (where there are 433 pharmacies), Penang (213), Kuala Lumpur (201) and Johor (157).
Realising the lack of pharmacies in rural areas and the inequitable distribution, the Health Ministry was looking into a zoning system to distribute pharmacies accordingly in urban and rural areas so that the people would not be deprived of such facilities, Liow said.
To ensure an equitable distribution of pharmacies in the country, the ministry and the Malaysian Pharmacy Association had developed the Malaysian Healthcare Providers Mapping Service.
Currently, the ratio of pharmacists to the population in Malaysia is 1:2,947 people and by 2016 it is expected to reach the optimum ratio of 1:2,000 people set by the World Health Organisation. – Bernama
Move to increase pharmacies in rural areas
By WONG PEK MEI
pekmei@thestar.com.my
Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said this would encourage the private sector to open more community pharmacies in these areas.
“This is to combat the problem of insufficient number of community pharmacies, especially in rural areas,” said Liow in his speech during the launch of the 100th Cosway pharmacy store at Bandar Sri Daman-sara yesterday.
His speech was read out by the ministry’s Pharmaceutical Services Division senior director Datuk Eisah A. Rahman.
Liow said statistics showed that there were only 1,834 community pharmacies in the country.
“The ministry views seriously the uneven distribution of community pharmacies, most of which are mushrooming in city areas,” he said.
He added that it had worked together with the Malaysian Phar-maceutical Society to develop the Malaysian Healthcare Providers Mapping Service.
The service, which displayed 10 types of healthcare service providers, would allow patients to find out the location of the nearest pharmacies as well as hospitals and clinics, he said.
The service, he added, was also used by the ministry to implement “zoning” as a way of improving the distribution of pharmacies in both urban and rural areas to make it easier for people to access medicine.
Later, Eisah told reporters that a community pharmacy was a retail pharmacy which also provided services such as a pharmacist offering consumer advice on proper medication, dosage and precautions.
“It could be owned by individuals or a group of companies,” she said, adding that through “zoning”, the ministry could better control the distribution of pharmacies by referring to the mapping service.
“Before anyone wants to open a pharmacy, he or she will need to get the division’s approval. So, if the particular location requested for has other pharmacies, we will advise them to consider different places,” she said, adding that there would also be less competition.
Pagalavan's Avatar 
You are right sir BUT sorry to say TRUTH is a bitter pill to swallow.With regard to the pharmacy graduates they are to take a small portion of the blame ,they have got their board to look into all this SO my Q is WHERE WERE they sleeping when all this was implemented or they were part and parcel of this .
Today sir we are not bringing out graduates but instead as I call them a new terminology secondary school grads u know why .Let me quote to u 1 instance I am on Lovastatin 20 mg and 75 mg aspirin u know what the pharmacist told me to take the 300 mg tabof aspirin & break it into 4 then take that quarter.as we do not have stock well if it is 1 time let it go lah but when I went again the same thing happened this time I lost my cool I asked her where did u qualify from she was stunned when I asked her this Q I told her do u know what is a effervescence tab she said I do not know then she asked me are u a doctor I said no but told her u better go & read up the next time I come here I will ask u the same question ,the other day she saw me & ran inside later a pembantu pharmacist did the dispensing SO THIS IS THE STATE OF AFFAIRS IN THE GOVT HOSPITALS WE HAVE 1/2 BAKED PHARMACIST WHEN U ARE 1/2 BAKED U JUST KEEP QUITE & TAKE THE SALARY U DARE NOT TALK THEN IT WILL HAVE A NATURAL DEATH. to the profession sad to say .At least for now they are forced to work in govt hospitals when they go to work as in retail they will only know 1 thing that is A cost X Ringgit B cost y Ringgit this even a form 3 drop out student can do u do not need to go to college ha ha ha .
Er? But if u break to 4 that 300, it will still be 75mg anyway. I think aspirin nowadays mostly are 300-500mg per tablet.
Taking a quarter tablet of aspirin is a perfectly acceptable way of taking 75mg of Aspirin, all over the world, and soluble aspirin is cheap. The original Aspirin studies were done on a quarter to 1/2 tablet, and hence the recommendation for 75 to 150mg. The newer ‘cardiac’ preparations of 100mg is to capitalise on this demand, by marketing a new preparation with several times the price. They are NOT better, and a quarter tablet works just as well. You should not have scolded the pharmacist on something you know nothing about.
75 mg is ok I know & the whole world knows BUT to break a 300 mg into 4 & use it for 4 days is nonsense sir I am in the manufacturing field for 35years u cannot give to a patient a 300 mg tab & ask him/her to break into 4 if the tab has 2 score line may be not in this case today people respect u not because u are a pharmacist they respect the CHAIR where u sit so it has got that amount of power so use it correctly so that the person in the end will get the max benefits of the medication..I am not agt any profession I want u to be the master of it .
So the original studies using a quarter tablet are nonsense studies? The pharmacist dispense on a prescription. If the doctor prescriptive 75mg, the pharmacist will have to tell you quarter tablet. If you are not happy breaking the tablet into quarters, you have to tell that to the doctor, NOT blame the pharmacist. The later CANNOT change the medication without the doctor agreeing.
Like all professions, there are good and bad pharmacists. This is a poor example to use, to criticise bad pharmacists.
There u go again sir looking at it at the wrong angle If u look at the tablet that is dispensed by the govt hospitals u will notice that they are coated and have a score line ,the right hand thumb rule is that hygroscopic tablets should be dispensed as whole & not broken as they tend to absorb moisture so in cases where there is no choice it is the duty of the pharmacist to explain to the patient that this tab needs special treatment ——.The next step is to sound the alam to the superior 7 WAREHOUSE ON THIS A SIMPLE EXTRA MILE WILL DO WONDERS .
With the 100th Cosway pharmacy mushroomed in such a short time, it is no surprise that they are planning “carefully” towards the separation of dispensing, as well as 1Care on a larger picture. The TWG of 1care has already spent so much time in preparing the ground work, and insider news has revealed that it is just waiting for the suitable time to roll out, in stages of course. The GP’s out there can yell to their lungs burst, but they hold no weight in dictating what they wish. One man’s meat could be the other’s poison. I know for sure that there are many pharmacists as well as GP’s who are dying to wait for the 1care system to be implemented, just because this group may benefit from it; while those who are cursing and shouting TAK NAK, are those who foresee their rice bowls getting affected. That’s simple human instinct – “self protection”, anyway. And the TWG is fully aware of it.
But churning out so many doctors and pharmacists is indeed worrisome, and may eventually ruin the whole medical field. But then again, some senior doctors who are, on one hand against 1care, but on the other hand laughing cynically about the oversupply of doctors, as they feel that the public will soon lose trust in younger doctors, and therefore will come back to the more senior doctors for treatment and consultation – hence increase their business and income! So again, you can see the split in the fraternity, and how humans are selfishly safeguarding their own pockets and rice bowls.
For me, this whole thing about producing doctors, nurses, dentists and pharmacists has really gone overboard. Out of control. The only thing I hope is that, which ever party winning the 13th GE, to have the basic conscience to maintain the integrity and quality of the healthcare profession, and not just always about money making only.
I recently spoke to a major shareholder of a group practice (not to be named, of course) who said that he is not afraid of 1care and its business as usual for the group. They have insider news that despite all the talk of 1care clinics must be run by diploma holders or masters, in practice that would only take place after sometime. For now, they will still allow anyone to open a clinic, but preference would be given to open in rural areas. This is where group practice would be going to after this; massive expansion into under-served areas backed by ‘rich’ financiers. Once the expansion has taken place, the 1care contracts would be given out to these ppl.
In fact those big players (eg group practice GPs) are not worried about 1care, in fact they wil benefit from it if the scheme is implemented. Similarly for the big players in pharmacy chain, like Guardian and Caring. If 1care rolls out, you will soon realize what I want to say here – they will become the main player in the dispensing pharmacies for the 1care.
The main problem lies in most of the smaller or solo practice pharmacists or GPs around in big town. Once 1care is out, half will benefit from it, but the other half will not. Those will not benefit from it are usually those solo practitioners who are doing quite well currently, eg like a clinic with 80-100 patients a day on average. However after 1care is out, the “fair share policy” will be implemented, I last heard, will be around 20-25 patients per day per clinic. So that quality time can be given to the patients. Out of pocket patients can still come to you if they really like you. But imagine if you already pay for the 1care tax every month (like a “prepaid system”), and still forking out money to see your personal favourite doctor, I don’t think many of us would want that “double spending” – unless the doctor is superb or damn good!
YOU are absolutely right . TQVM . Things are just getting out of control. That ‘s why doctors are fighting for dispensing rights . Doctors have no confidence in the large pharmaceutical esp in the International group should doctors lose thier dispensing rights . ITS TIME MMC is run like the law council . Doctors take charge of the MEDICAL COUNCIL . Politicians should stay out of MMC . Gouman stay out of MMC .
Dr paga,
fyi. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/feb/27/medical-students-job-offers-exam. Is the system as bad as ours?
Whilst waiting for Dr Paga’s reply, may I know what is your definition of “system” in your question?
Also, there’s already a public admission of “scoring errors” and UKFPO has committed to manually marking the papers.
On what basis are you comparing the “system”? Has there ever been a public admission in Malaysia about “scoring errors”?
definitely not
Dear Doc,
I’m a SPM leaver, I wanted to involve myself in this health world but I was considering the job vacancies in the future. So is it true the number of doctors are increasing these days?
yes, please read my post under “For Future Doctors” page!
Dear sir, I am a bit confused. Do we need more pharmacists now, or we simply have a lot of them already? I was told pharmacists are in demand.
You are still needed but not in government sector
Sir, I really hope u don’t mind me tagging u in my blogs. I just want 2 create sum awareness n provide support 2 our fellows in da medical profession. Since u r well known in da medical blogging community, it would b a big support. TQ 4 ur time.
OK, no problem
I was be told that nowadays pharmacists are waiting for long time to get internship in goverment hospital and pharmacist will become jobless in future.It is true?i am thinking to take dentistry instead of pharmacy after my Alevel. However i aslo know that dentist will get saturated soon.What is ur opinion, Dr? Tq
Yes, I have written about it last year. That’s the reason the government is allowing for pharmacist to do internship at private retail outlets, as I have write here. Pharmacist are still needed in rural areas.
At the moment, dentist are still needed especially in rural and semirural areas.
It is so rude to have compare a pharmacist to a form3 student.
Different field will face different problem, a doctor will never understand what a pharmacist facing. As a doctor never know what difficulty an engineer is facing. Please don’t assume that engineer/pharmacist works are easy just simply because a doctor jobs are difficult.
Human need respect. As a doctor u help ppl but please don’t forget to respect those working along with u I.e. pharmacists, nurses, etc. As there are a lot of under-trained doctors out there in these days there are too pharmacists under-trained.
Besides that, there are a lot of medications in GH under contract between gov and the supplier. Lots of times, I heard Dr said, if the original have around the same price with the generic, why pharmacist purchase generic?If the medications is under contract, we were forced to buy from the supplier as it is bond by law. Every field have boundaries and limitation, sometimes things just not going as how u want it to be.
And, sometimes or lots of times u may see there are shortage of medications. Why it is happening? Be fair. 1- bad management of stock 2- not enough money to deal with the demand 3- abuse of medications prescribe. Is the responsible of all, not just 1. We had face a lot of patients when we asked them this is cough medicine do u have cough? Patient: erm, no? Maybe Dr just give it for me to spare when I need it. Medications had been prescribed in package, not patient base. Doctors are doctors, u are not dictator, u can’t do totally what u like and get what u want. Everything need cooperations. One people can’t save the world from pollution but if everyone cooperate, it’s possible.
Effervescent tablet may disintegrate when they meet humidity in the air. But, comparing no medications, it may be an alternatives. U may keep the remaining tablet in an airtight container. Or, if u don’t want, please return the medications to the pharmacy as there are other patient needing it.
Love is colorblind it should be career blind too. If pharmacist lacks of knowledge and experience, teach them, so that we can all help the patients.
And, for that pharmacist, if u want people to respect u, face the problem, don’t run away from it.
What goes around comes around. Regards.
hi there,
a good article indeed. as a pharmacist, i am also worried of the current trend. first, in terms of training, how well exposed will these new pharmacists be compared to their hospital counterpart. one may say that if a student is interested to work in retail, why place him in a hospital setting. but i still believe the exposure to things like adverse reactions, emergency treatments, conditions to watch out for, CPDs and etc are what makes them better and prepared before being put in any field of their interest.
secondly, the move actually highlights the failure of the current education system to uphold quality. we, Malaysia, have always been and will always be a country which believes in Quantity rather than Quality. that is the reason university intakes increase students from 3rd world nations to boost ranking, rather than making education here as par as those in developed nations. we want our students to be a big fish in a small pond.
similar trends also occur in the medical field. mushrooming of private universities and unknown foreign universities are some of them. the only thing differing is that as doctors have the dispensing rights, they are still able to survive outside the gov sectors. thus, we could say the bubble have not burst yet, compared to the pharmacists.
lastly, to mr. selva nathan, i am truly appalled by your comments regarding pharmacist in gov hospitals. let me ask you in return, i have came across and heard of numerous dr whom said things like this ‘i dont know what medicine is that, i just wrote it’, or ‘its ok, i will check the INR after 1 month, (without looking at the current results – INR 4.2)’ or those private GPs whom sell cough syrups and methadone to abusers. how would you feel if public generalizes them and say that doctors are unprofessional, money minded or with huge ego? hurtful indeed, because we know that there will always be some bad apples spoiling the lot. so do think before jumping into conclusions, after all that is what we healthcare professionals are thought to do first.
as mentioned by X above, in a gov setting, the pharmacists are limited by numerous things. budget, stocks which we have totally no control of, policies, overburdened by paperworks and so. we get blamed by both doctors and patients for running out of stocks or changing of brands, and yet they don’t realize the problem is central. do you know even with thorough budgeting, every year millions are spent on Nonlocals? money have been splurged on banners, promotions and superficial things, but if you look again, hospitals in rural area like mine suffers in the long run. even within a gov setting, there is polypharmacy and Drs overusing specialist items. so again, dont generalize and think before you comment.
professionalism once tarnished is difficult to be cleared again. i hope government and certain groups of people realize this. to those surviving in this system, kuddos and keep up the good work. to those outside, learn to respect them.
Hi, Dr.Pagalavan,
I intend to study pharmacy and wish to obtain a master in clinical pharmacy. Do I need a master in clinical pharmacy to do clinical research on new drugs and in the R and D field ? thank you
Dear Doctor,
I am a SPM leaver and I wish to become a pharmacist in future. There is still a long way to go for me to become a registered pharmacist and thats why I am very worried about the overflow of pharmacists in Malaysia..What should I do? Continue my planned journey without thinking much of the risk of being unemployed in the future or change my plan while I still can?
There is no guarantee for any job in the future. Who would have thought that doctors will become jobless in many parts of the world? Just do what you are interested and success will come to you
Thanks doctor!! I will work hard to achieve my dream of becoming a pharmacist! ^^
Review of Pro n Con of Joining as Cosway Pharmacist,
http://pharmacistsharing.blogspot.com/p/business-concept.html
Professional Q is one where the individual has to take the bull by its horn.As far as education is concerned politics cannot come in BUT in Malaysia POLITICS IS NO1 THEY WANT MERITOCRACY the definition of this according to the Malaysian govt is as long as the rural people can read & write they can go into U so we see in the U people who cannot speak the English language but doing professional course I had `1 MU grad who could not write a official letter in English he came to me for help .Today the colleges are producing graduates that is not wanted by the industry so WHO IS TO BE BLAMED THE ANSWER IS BLOWING IN THE WIND.pl refer to my article dated on 27/2/13 is self explanatory.we have pharmacist who do not know what is effervence granules we have pharmacist who say that Ranitidine 300 mg can be broken into 2 & dispensed as 150 mg makes me vomit blood.
doing internship in retail pharmacy? have you done a complete research about that doc? i think they only do attachment for a couple of weeks in retail, but internship will be in hospital, either gov or private one. Hope you would have done better research before making any conclusion next time doc. with respect from a pharmacist.
For your information, I wrote the article based on the newspaper announcement as attached above. It was very clear that community pharmacist is being asked to provide internship training to pharmacist. Cosway is already on their way. Again, I was commenting on the report in newspaper from sources in MOH
Thanks for ur informations.I am currently in form 3 and wish to take medical course when i go to college.Can i know either than pharmacist,are there any career that have a high job opportunities in the future?
Nothing is guaranteed in the future. Do what you are really interested in and not what gives you a job/money
Thanks a lot
Oh yea.Can doctor Pagalavan suggest me any career that suitable our country.I am interested in medicine (drugs) , drug effect inside the human body, and manufacture drugs .I would also like to work in pharmaceutical industry. But i heard that most medicine in Malaysia are imported so there are low job opportunities. THANKS
There are a lot of companies in Malaysia producing generic drugs at the moment but we are not a research based country. We do not produce new drugs etc. BUT generic companies are expanding fast.
Do what you are interested. Job opportunities changes all the time. No one will know what will happen in the future.
Thank a lot…:)