Rise of pharmacist-managed clinics in Guangdong Province, China

Creating the position of surgical pharmacist in China

“…The policy mandates all drugs to be sold in hospitals with no markup on price. Besides pharmacist-managed clinics (PMCs),1 we found the surgery department may be a good place for pharmacists to play a role, because most surgeons are more interested in surgical procedures than medicinal treatment, and irrational drug usage is more common in the surgery department than in the internal medicine department.…”

“…However, pharmacists have no authority to prescribe drugs. Pharmacists can obtain the drug-prescription authority by signing the collaborative drug therapy management (CDTM) agreements with physicians and surgeons 1. Pharmacists make the agreements with physicians, which are also approved by surgeons.…”

“…Hospital pharmacists play an important role in antimicrobial stewardship in China, and pharmacists who are in charge of the perioperative use of antimicrobial agents can be trained as surgical pharmacists. Furthermore, postoperative patients can also be followed up in PMCs using the CDTM model,1 freeing up surgeons for other procedures.…”

Spread of the idea of ‘deprescribing’ in China

“…We were so impressed by this idea, realising that ‘deprescribing’ is an important part of the Medication Therapy Management service, which was promoted in China by the Guangdong Province Pharmaceutical Association (GDPA) working with the American Pharmacists Association 1. In order to introduce ‘deprescribing’ into China, after we came back from the Congress we searched the literature on ‘deprescribing’ and wrote a review on it which was published in the journal Pharmacy Today ,2 the official journal of the GDPA.…”