Separation of prescribing and dispensing

Contemporary research indicates that separation of prescribing and dispensing lowers expenditure on drugs,[1][2] which is explained by the fact physician-prescribing gives doctors an incentive to over-prescribe.

In other words, the diagnosing physicians' role is supposed to extend only as far as providing proper prescriptions to patients, who are then entitled to purchase the prescribed drugs at the pharmacies of their choice.

The law requires that the GP practice be located in a designated rural area and that there is also a specified, minimum distance (currently 1 mile; 1.6 kilometres) between a patient's home and the nearest retail pharmacy.

This law also exists in Austria for general physicians if the nearest pharmacy is more than 4 kilometers (2+1⁄2 miles) away, or where none is registered in the city.

[7] In other jurisdictions (particularly in Asian countries such as China, Malaysia, and Singapore), doctors are allowed to dispense drugs themselves and the practice of pharmacy is sometimes integrated with that of the physician, particularly in traditional Chinese medicine.

As many of the remaining nations move towards separation, resistance and lobbying from dispensing doctors who have pecuniary interests may prove a major stumbling block (e.g. in Malaysia).

[8] In Taiwan, a plan initiated in March 1997 experimented with separating doctors who prescribe from pharmacists who fulfill prescriptions on the theory that this would reduce unnecessary health care.