The Jamaica Medical Doctors’ Association (JMDA) is seeking to allay fears that Jamaicans could be at risk as doctors allow their receptionists to dispense drug.

According to president of the JMDA Dr Elon Thompson, the majority of Jamaican doctors write prescriptions for their patients and send them to the pharmacy.

“I don’t know if the concerns are about the physical act of the medication being given to a patient by the doctor’s secretary or if the secretary is making an independent decision about which medication should be given to a patient.

“These are two different cases because if the secretary is instructed to give the patient something that the doctor has prescribed, then she is just handing the patient a box and that is okay. But if the receptionists dispense the medication by themselves, then that is a no, no,” Thompson told the Jamaica Observer.

“The secretary should have no interaction with the patient with regards to medication. She should just be hand to hand and every advice about the medication should come from the doctor before the medication is handed over,” said Thompson.

He was responding to concerns of the Pharmaceutical Society of Jamaica which last week charged that the practice of dispensing by untrained personnel is dangerous.

“Receptionists are unable to identify prescribing errors, drug interactions and counsel patients on medications. The problem of unregulated doctor’s office dispensing is becoming more prevalent in the western parishes which have an influx of Asian doctors, who practised similarly in their home countries,” argued the Pharmaceutical Society.

But Thompson said he was not aware that this was a big problem.

“I would think that the doctor would have spoken to the patient about what to do, how to take the medication and if all of that is clear and the only thing is that the doctor tells the receptionist to hand this medication to ‘John Brown’, then I don’t see the problem,” added Thompson.

He also downplayed the claim of the Pharmaceutical Society that drug interaction might not be taken into account when the doctors dispense the medication.

“The doctor already knows what medication the patient is on and what other medication that they can be given,” argued Thompson.

— Arthur Hall