Dear Editor,
There is a book universally called a Pharmacopoeia. In it are listed all known drugs or medications approved by government for use in Guyana. It not only names the items but it describes in detail what medical purposes they serve, their dosage, side-effects and other details.
All pharmacists and medical practitioners are required to study and pass rigid examinations on this book before they may practise their respective professions. A Formulary on the other hand is a book which lists the drugs and medications all public healthcare institutions (especially hospitals) stock, store and provide free of charge, to the Guyanese people.
So what? you may ask at this point. Well, the public is not at all satisfied with the unavailability of free drugs and medications at any or all of our facilities, and I am prepared to shrilly object on their behalf to what I perceive to be a gross injustice and a serious dilemma we daily encounter when we present our authorized prescriptions to public pharmacies. A prescription is often not worth the paper on which it is written if invariably the item(s) is not in stock and must be purchased elsewhere. The end result is that most patients ignore the treatment regime, purchase less than what was prescribed, become acutely sick, become a serious burden on our health budget and ultimately may even die.
Editor, I need not amplify the contributing factors such as negligence in government stock-taking, re-ordering schedules, pensioners’ inability to purchase, prohibitive charges by pharmaceutical companies, the public’s negligence and inattention to primary, secondary and tertiary care, the appeals by our overworked and embattled pharmacists to fix the appalling system which is not their fault, and the general response by all who would listen, that is: ‘I don’t know!’ ‘It can’t be done!’ ‘We have always done it this way!’ ‘We don’t have!’ ‘What about a voucher for reimbursement?’
Fellow Guyanese I am saying this now: if the drug or medication is listed in the Formulary, it must at all times be available to whom-ever it is legally prescribed in every public healthcare institution in Guyana, period.
Yours faithfully,
George L Munroe
