Summary.
The draft bill establishes a legal framework for pharmaceutical care as a component of the right to health. Its purpose is to ensure the rational, safe, effective and timely provision of medicines and the active participation of pharmacists in comprehensive patient care. It addresses patients with chronic illnesses or those who use medicines over an extended period, in connection with a possible reduction in drug effectiveness and potential side effects.
It defines pharmaceutical care as services provided by pharmacists to improve patients’ pharmacotherapy, prevent medication errors, optimize medicine use and support adherence to treatment. These services include participation in dispensing, pharmaceutical consultation and pharmacotherapy monitoring, with attention to problems associated with medicines. The proposed framework applies to every public, private and mixed facility within the national health system.
The proposal makes pharmaceutical care subject to the principles of accessibility, rational therapy, patient safety, participation by pharmacists, interdisciplinary health care and respect for patient autonomy. It provides that the State must ensure its inclusion at every level of health care, including public and private clinics, polyclinics and hospitals. Health facilities would also have to include clinical pharmacists in their medical care teams to provide individualized pharmacotherapy monitoring. These provisions address both the place of pharmaceutical care within the health system and its delivery to individual patients.
On education and training, the draft bill assigns the Ministry of Health (Ministerio de Salud), in coordination with academic institutions, responsibility for promoting pharmacists’ education and continuing training in pharmaceutical care. It assigns pharmacology specialists the tasks of informing patients and monitoring their drug treatments. It also provides for their cooperation in overseeing individualized medicine use, detecting adverse reactions and reporting them to the bodies responsible for pharmacovigilance, including MINSA. Specialists would further collaborate in programs that promote the quality of pharmaceutical care and disease prevention. The monitoring and reporting tasks concern medicines used by individual patients.
Public or private health institutions that fail to comply with the proposed law would be subject to sanctions under existing health regulations. As a final provision, the draft bill directs the Executive Branch (Órgano Ejecutivo) to issue implementing regulations within no more than six months after promulgation. Its provisions concern the Ministry of Health, MINSA and the Executive Branch, as well as clinics, polyclinics, hospitals, academic institutions, pharmacists and patients in the public, private and mixed health sectors. They address pharmaceutical services, clinical care teams, professional training and the monitoring of patients’ drug treatment.
What it proposes.
- Pharmaceutical care within the national health system.
- Pharmacists’ participation in patient care.
- Pharmacist training, treatment monitoring and consequences of noncompliance.
Who it would affect.
- Public, private and mixed health facilities.
- Pharmacists and clinical pharmacists.
- Patients receiving pharmaceutical care.
- Public and private health institutions.
Key points.
- Proposes pharmaceutical care as a component of the right to health and pharmacist participation in comprehensive patient care.Art. 1
- Defines pharmaceutical care services, including dispensing, consultation and pharmacotherapy monitoring.Art. 2
- Applies the framework to every public, private and mixed facility in the national health system.Art. 3
- Establishes principles of accessibility, rational therapy, patient safety, interdisciplinary care and patient autonomy.Art. 4
- Provides for pharmaceutical care at every level of care and for clinical pharmacists to join medical teams.Arts. 5-6
- Provides for continuing training and duties involving patient information, treatment monitoring, pharmacovigilance and pharmaceutical care programs.Art. 7
- Subjects institutional noncompliance to existing health regulations and directs the Executive Branch to issue regulations within six months after promulgation.Arts. 8-9