KUALA LUMPUR: Public awareness on returning unused medicines obtained from public health clinics or government hospitals remains low, say experts.
The government spent RM23.25bil to purchase medicines from 2015 to 2023 based on the Pharmacy Services Programme Statistics Report and throwing them away amounts to sheer wastage.
Occupational Health and General Medicine specialist Dr Hanafiah Bashirun said any patient who receives medication from a government clinic or hospital but does not use it should return the medicine to the health facility (via drop-off boxes).
“However, currently the awareness of returning medicines among patients is still low. Some choose to just throw medicines in the bin or sink or flush them in the toilet. This results in annual losses of thousands of ringgit,” he told Bernama.
Dr Hanafiah said Malaysia is among the countries with a high rate of non-communicable diseases, including diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity.
He said patients are supplied with medicines for a period of three to six months depending on their health status.
“However, when patients do not comply with taking their medicines or are prescribed a new type of medicine, most of them just keep the old supply until the expiry date and later discard it indiscriminately, which is detrimental since the medicines involve significant costs,” he added.
Dr Hanafiah also said that in the event of death, the patient’s next of kin must be responsible for returning unexpired medication.
He said this is to enable the clinic or hospital to supply them to other patients to address the national medication shortage crisis.
As such, he urged the Health Ministry to promote the medicine return boxes placed at pharmacy counters.
“Perhaps the medicine return boxes could be placed outside the health facility which makes it easier for patients to return medicines on a drive-through basis, in addition to displaying a notice of medicine return if not used on each medication supplied to a patient,” he said.
According to the National Security Council website, it is estimated that the value of medicine supplied for acute or mild diseases is between RM5 and RM40 per week.
For specialist clinic treatment or chronic diseases, the cost of medicine can reach RM400 per month depending on the level of care and type of medication given.
Previously, the Health Ministry introduced the initiative of labelling the price of medicine supplied to patients in all the ministry’s health facilities since 2011 to raise awareness on the price of medicines financed by government subsidies.
Public health physician Datuk Dr Zainal Ariffin Omar said he is concerned that improper disposal of medicines by patients, such as throwing them into waterway sources, could lead to environmental pollution.
He said this matter should not be taken lightly even though pharmaceutical waste is not the only cause of environmental pollution.
“Maybe the problem seems quite small, but pollution due to the disposal of medicines and pharmaceutical products that do not follow procedure can pose a threat to environmental health, as well as endanger aquatic life if not controlled as early as possible,” he said.
Dr Zainal Ariffin, who is also Public Health Organisation Malaysia adviser, said the Health Ministry has special procedures for disposal of medicines depending on the type, including the use of incinerators for burning or isolating hazardous substances to reduce environmental impact.
