Pharmaceutical Network July 5 - Yunnan Provincial Drug Administration on July 3 on the official website published "on further promoting the healthy development of pharmaceutical retail enterprises notice notice notice", which annex "Yunnan Province drug retail chain enterprises remote pharmaceutical services and audit system guidelines (trial)" (hereinafter referred to as the Guiding Principles" ) The remote pharmacy service and the adjudicator of the practicing pharmacist are clearly defined as "the way in which a retail chain set up a remote adjudicator studio at headquarters, equipped with a certain number of practicing pharmacists, and provideonline reviewers and guide reasonable drug service for the chain stores through the remote network reviewer system."

" In this regard, some industry people exclaimed that some pharmacies will not be equipped with licensed pharmacists.

But a closer look at the document may not be so simple.

There's still 50,000 gaps. The question of whether the remote adjudicatory parties in retail pharmacies should be liberalized has been debated for a long time. Since the practice of Hunan Province in 2013, a number of provinces and cities have also started a "pilot".

The reason is not for him, there is an objective gap in the practice of pharmacists. According to data released by the State Drug Administration's Professional Pharmacist Qualification Center, as of the end of May 2019, there were 439,693 practicing pharmacists registered in pharmaceutical retail enterprises nationwide, with 3.5 practicing pharmacists per 10,000 population. Compared with the 2018 Annual Report on Drug Supervision and Statistics published by the State Drug Administration, the number of enterprises published in the 2018 Annual Report on Drug Supervision and Statistics: As of the end of November 2018, there were 508,000 licensed enterprises with "Drug Licenses", including 5671 retail chains, 255,000 retail chain stores and 234,000 retail pharmacies.

In other words, even with a 1:1 ratio, there is still a gap of nearly 50,000 licensed pharmacists across the country. In yunnan, which is located in the southwest, the situation is even less ideal.

According to the announcement of the provincial practice pharmacist registration center, as of May 31, 2019, the number of practicing pharmacists in Yunnan Province was 21,489, and the number of active registered pharmacists in Yunnan Province was 9,537, a decrease of 428 from the previous month, with a registration rate of 44.38%, with an average of 2.00 practicing pharmacists per 10,000 population.

It is not difficult to deduce that the relevant departments encourage pharmacies to implement remote adjudication, not only to solve the problem of "hanging certificates" for practicing pharmacists, but to ease the actual pressure of enterprises, with a view to better ensuring the safety of public drug use.

Difficult to get rid of "transitional" identity

This time let the media interpret as "some pharmacies or do not have to be equipped with a licensed pharmacist" is due to Yunnan "guidelines" set out the requirements: drug retail chain 10 base stores should be equipped with at least 3 licensed pharmacists, each additional 15 stores with 1 licensed pharmacist. However, the document also explicitly requires that each chain store should be equipped with at least one pharmaceutical professional for prescription review and pharmaceutical services. Among them, stores outside the main urban area of the state (city) shall be equipped with a practicing pharmacist or pharmacist, a practicing pharmacist or above the qualified title personnel;

Stores operating Chinese medicine tablets also need to be equipped with a Chinese herbalist. To this end, analysts believe that the document issued in Yunnan, more is to take into account the remote township grass-roots retail pharmacies objective existence of pharmaceutical professional and technical personnel equipped with difficult ies, and the classification of equipment.

This person reminded that for the objective existence of the shortage of practicing pharmacists, the liberalization of the remote adjudication is more of the "old way" of the transition, the current retail pharmacies to face up to the strict control of the practice of pharmacists "hanging certificate", not according to the provisions of the general direction of the sale of prescription drugs. This statement is not baseless, just in june, The Hainan Provincial Drug Administration issued a "notice on further strengthening the management of the use of pharmaceutical retail enterprises practicing pharmacists", which clearly "the opening of the pharmaceutical retail chain stores before August 15, 2018, if the retail chain stores have not been separately equipped with a licensed pharmacist, A drug retail enterprise that can be conducted by the retail chain headquarters can be conducted remotely by the practice pharmacist, and a pharmaceutical retail enterprise that starts after 16 August 2018 must implement the "Hainan Province To Start Drug Retail Enterprise Acceptance Implementation Standard" (Joan Food And Drug Regulatory (2018) No. 82).

"A review of the corresponding documents requires that the enterprise seeking to operate prescription drugs, the total number of pharmaceutical technicians is not less than 2 people, at least one of whom is a practicing pharmacist.

Prescription drug opportunity is coming, practicing pharmacists is key. From the market data, the current retail channels of prescription drug sales is gradually increasing, the average rate of medical insurance fixed-point in the pharmacy industry has reached 72.02 percent.

Although many are still two-track management of chronic disease drugs, but not long ago Anhui Hefei issued a statement that consumers in the medical insurance negotiation drug agreement retail drug stores to buy the first batch of medical insurance negotiated drug costs can be included in the overall fund, major disease relief fund, major disease insurance payment scope, the future prescription drug opportunities are obvious to all. On the other hand, the State Health Insurance Administration in the "On the 2019 urban and rural residents to do a good job of basic medical security work" requires that the individual (family) health insurance accounts will be cancelled before the end of 2020, to the outpatient co-ordination smooth transition, has been cancelled individual (family) health insurance accounts in the region, may not be restored or disguised set up.

Industry experts pointed out that from historical experience, urban workers health insurance reform is often followed by residents' health insurance, personal account reform is inevitable. For pharmacies that rely on personal accounts to pay, pharmaceutical services above average are essential to win overall reimbursement from the health-care department, a strong payer. Earlier by the China Pharmaceutical Business Association led by the "retail pharmacies operating special diseases drug service norms" certification, but also put pharmaceutical services in a considerable part.

Some industry experts believe that similar certification may also become the future health care sector to assess whether pharmacies have health insurance co-ordination capacity of an important indicator. In the future, pharmacies that are content to serve multiple stores with a licensed pharmacist may not be in a good position.