Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-02-11
A trend of separating the issuance of drug prescriptions and drug dispensing is starting to take shape in China after new rules for doctors offering medical services over the phone or via the internet came into effect, Shanghai's China Business News reports.
The homepage of Guangdong Online Hospital. (Internet photo) |
A trend of separating the issuance of drug prescriptions and drug dispensing is starting to take shape in China after new rules for doctors offering medical services over the phone or via the internet came into effect, Shanghai's China Business News reports.
The trend
is more apparent after the Second People's Hospital of Guangdong, the country's
first and only licensed online hospital, issued prescriptions for dispensing by
a pharmacy, according to the report.
Long-distance
medical services were offered among medical institutions based on the business
to business (B2B) model, but were transformed into the business to consumer
(B2C) formula in August 2014 when health authorities issued regulations allowing
patients to access medical services over the internet.
The Second
People's Hospital of Guangdong started offering its online medical care
services Oct. 25 last year after over a one-month trial period, according to
the report.
The
hospital is planning to set up 1,000 network sites for online diagnosis in
Guangdong before the Chinese New Year holiday and to expand the network sites
to 10,000 at the end of this year, said Zhang Shenming, a promoter of the
online hospital.
The
hospital has also signed cooperative agreements with over 20 drugstore chains
and a medical technology company in Shenzhen to offer remote medical services.
Under the
format of internet medical services, patients can seek medical attention from a
doctor at a chain drugstore in Guangzhou through communication with the doctor
via the internet.
Direct
patient-doctor communication means that the patient does not need to visit the
hospital in person.
The
hospital has 200 doctors covering a wide range of medical disciplines taking
part in the project and more than 10 professionals are responsible for the
online hospital websites' operations. After the pilot operation, about 200
patients per day will be able to seek medical attention through the online
hospital, according to Zhang.
In
addition, more drug prescriptions issued by doctors have been handed out for
dispensing by pharmacists, a move that will be beneficial to the development of
the separation of drug prescriptions and dispensing, Zhang added.
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