Annual Report 1999

• INTRODUCTION
• MEMBERS OF THE BOARD
• FUNCTIONS OF THE PHARMACY BOARD
• ACTIVITIES OF THE PHARMACY BOARD IN 1999
• CONCLUSION

INTRODUCTION

The Pharmacy Board is established under the provision of section 3 of the Registration of Pharmacist Act 1951.

The current members of the Board were appointed on 30 August 1997 for a 3-year term.

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MEMBERS OF THE BOARD

PHARMACY BOARD OF MALAYSIA 1999

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FUNCTIONS OF THE PHARMACY BOARD

The Pharmacy Board is responsible for regulating the pharmacy profession and practice through the following activities;

1. Registration and deregistration of Pharmacists.

2. Registration and deregistration of Bodies Corporate.

3. Registration of Pupil Pharmacists.

4. Recognition of pharmacy degrees.

5. Approval of premises for pre-registration training of pharmacy graduates.

6. Setting guidelines and standards on issues relating to accreditation of pharmacy program and practice.

7. Conducting pharmacy forensic examinations.

8. Conducting inquiries on complaints of unethical practices.

In carrying out these duties, the Board is assisted by five committees namely,

1. Preliminary Inquiry Committee
2. Evaluation Committee
3. Forensic Examination Committee
4. Training Committee
5. Ethics Committee.

The Board is grateful to the following persons for their contributions in the Board's activities:-

CO-OPTED COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Professor Dzulkifli bin Abdul Razak
Director
National Poison Centre
Universiti Sains Malaysia

Dr. Aishah binti Adam
Associate Professor and Lecturer
Pharmacy Department
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

Mrs. Helen Aw
Chief Executive Officer
Cold Storage Retail Sdn. Bhd.

Mr. Loo Chiang Jiu
Head of Pharmacy Department
Hospital Kuala Lumpur

Miss Siti Aida binti Abdullah
Principal Assistant Director
Pharmaceutical Services Division
Ministry of Health


WORKSHOP CONSULTANT

Prof. Ian Mathison
Dean
College of Pharmacy
Ferris State University
Big Rapids, Michigan
United States

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ACTIVITIES OF THE PHARMACY BOARD IN 1999

1. MEETINGS
   
   The Board held two meetings on May 4,1999 and November 4, 1999.

2. WORKSHOP
   
   A workshop on Accreditation of Pharmacy Degree Programme was successfully conducted on May 27 to 28, 1999 and June 3 to 4, 1999 at Hotel Armada, Petaling Jaya. The workshop was jointly organised by the Pharmacy Board Malaysia and the National Accreditation Board (LAN). The World Health Organization (WHO) financed the workshop and made available the services of a consultant, Prof. Ian Mathison from Ferris University, USA. As an exercise a survey on the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia was conducted from May 31 to June 3, 1999, by an ad hoc team representing the Pharmacy Board Malaysia and National Accreditation Board. During the survey, documents developed and refined at the workshop as tools for evaluation were used and tested.
   
   The final revised documents will be adopted for accrediting future pharmacy programmes conducted by institutes of higher learning.

3. RECOGNITION OF PHARMACY DEGREES
   
   This year, the Board deliberated on and recognised the following degrees:

1. Bachelor of Pharmaceutical Sciences degree from Pharmaceutical Science Faculty, Kumamoto University, Japan effective November 4, 1999.

2. Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy degree from School of Pharmacy, Taipei Medical College, Taiwan effective November 4, 1999.

The list of recognised pharmacy qualifications is as in Appendix 1.

Besides full recognition given to the degrees mentioned above, provisional recognition was given to the qualification of the following pharmacy programmes;

1. Bachelor of Pharmacy (Hons) of the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

2. Bachelor of Pharmacy (Hons) of the Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur.

Preliminary evaluation and inspection visits were made to the following institutes but further evaluation and follow-up visits are needed before recognition can be awarded;

1. Sepang Institute of Technology (twinning programme with University of South Australia) - Approval given to start the Pharmacy Course.

2. Sedaya College (franchise programme with Universiti Sains Malaysia) - Approval still pending.

4. PHARMACY FORENSIC EXAMINATION
   
   The examinations were held twice in 1999. The first written examination was held on May 24,1999 with the oral examination (viva) on June 21,1999. The second examination was held on November 15,1999 and the viva held on December 18, 1999.
   
   The profile of the results of the examination is as in Table 1 below;

Table 1: Forensic Examination Profile

	May/June	November/ December	Total
Number of Candidates	82	55	137
Number of candidates passed	60	50	110
Percentage of passes	73.2%	90.9%	80.3%

The total number of candidates who sat for the examinations was 137 (113 in 1998). The total number of candidates who passed was 110 (103 in 1998). The percentage of candidates who passed varied from 73.2% in May/June and 90.9% in November/December. The overall percentage of passes is 80.3% (91.2% in 1998).

5. REGISTRATION OF PHARMACISTS, BODIES CORPORATE AND PUPIL PHARMACISTS
   
   Registration statistics for Pharmacists, Bodies Corporate and Pupil Pharmacists are as in Table 2.

Table 2:

Statistics of New Registration and Renewal of Registration For Pharmacists and Bodies Corporate

NO.		1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999
1.	No. of Newly Registered Pharmacist	134 (LG:81) (FG:53)	118 (LG:72) (FG:46)	140 (LG:73) (FG:67)	148 (LG:67) (FG:81)	194 (LG:122) (FG:72)	173 (LG:71) (FG:102)	207 (LG:112) (FG:95)
2.	No. of Registered House Pharmacists	139 (LG:62) (FG:77)	110 (LG:69) (FG:41)	115 (LG:66) (FG:49)	141 (LG:73) (FG:68)	111 (LG:76) (FG:35)	174 (LG:105) (FG:69)	226 (LG:135) (FG:91)
3.	No. of Newly Registered Body Corporate	2	1	15	6	13	7	9
4.	No. of Annual Renewal of Registration Certificates issued for Pharmacists	1,536	1,688	1,672	1,681	1,896	2,057	2,269
5.	No. of Annual Renewal of Registration Certificates issued for Body Corporate	93	94	85	86	83	85	85

Newly Registered Pharmacist

The number of new pharmacist registered in 1999 increased by 19.7% to 207 (173 in 1998). This was made up of 112 local graduates (54.1 %) and 95 foreign graduates (45.9%).

House Pharmacist

There was also an increase in the number of Pupil Pharmacists registered from 174 in 1998 to 226 in 1999 reflecting an increase in pharmacy graduates output

Nine new Bodies Corporate were registered in 1999.

6. DISTRIBUTION OF REGISTERED PHARMACISTS IN 1999
   
   Out of the total pharmacists of 2,269 who renewed their annual retention certificates, 381 pharmacists (16.8%) were employed in the public sector including in other ministries and universities and 1,888 (83.2%) in the private sector. With the 207 additional new pharmacists registered throughout 1999, the total number of registered pharmacists stand at 2,476.

Table 3: Ethnic Profile of Registered Pharmacists in 1999

Ethnic Group	No. of Pharmacists issued with Annual Retention Certificates	No. of New Pharmacists Registered	Total
Bumiputra	807	75	882
Chinese	1,313	121	1,434
Indian	142	6	148
Other	3	-	3
Foreign citizens	4	5	9
TOTAL	2,269	207	2,476

By ethnic group, about 35.7% of the 2,474 registered pharmacists are Bumiputra, 58% are Chinese, 6% are Indian, and 0.4% (12 persons) are of other races, out of which 9 are foreigners.

7. PREMISES APPROVED BY THE BOARD FOR PRE-REGISTRATION (PUPILLAGE) TRAINING
   
   Ten more private sector premises were recognised as training centres for pupil pharmacists. These comprise of 5 private hospitals and 5 community pharmacy outlets. The Board had rejected application of 20 community pharmacy outlets after inspection on the premise showed them to be unsatisfactory for training.
   
   The full list of approved premises is as in Appendix 2.

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CONCLUSION

Success in developing the relevant documents for accreditation procedures to be used in accrediting pharmacy degree programme will set a new milestone for pharmacy education and profession in Malaysia both locally and globally.

The Pharmacy Board's effort in successfully promoting a close relationship with the National Accreditation Board and institutions of higher learning has been mutually beneficial and contributed towards a better understanding of the Board's expectation of a pharmacy degree programme.

In response to the changes in the health care environment especially in electronic communication, the Board will have to play a greater role in streamlining the training and practice of pharmacy to ensure that pharmacists are able to effectively communicate and assist in changing the public's attitude towards health care and project pharmacy as an ethical and respected profession.

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