The head of the Union of Private Pharmacists, Nawfel Amira, emphasised, today Wednesday, March 20, 2024, during a press conference for the coordination of health structures, the necessity for the Ministry of Health to intervene in cases impacting several doctors and pharmacists suspected of prescribing and selling narcotic substances, to clarify the issue in particular. Knowing that 5 physicians and 2 pharmacists were arrested based on Law No. 52 of 1992 relating to drugs.
Amira stated the prescription and dispensing of the medicines took place legally and were registered in the prescription register, adding that the blue prescriptions included medicines possessing toxic substances and not narcotic substances.
This press conference follows the death of psychiatrist Mohamed Al-Haji in his prison in Bizerte.
Amira also condemned the absence of the pharmaceutical inspection service and its lack of intervention in the matter, because it is the first qualification to judge the nature of these tablets, according to his assessment.
He felt that dealing with security forces, bringing pharmacists and physicians to justice and keeping them until proven innocent would, in this view, create a crisis for patients.
He added that doctors and pharmacists started to live in a state of fear over blue prescriptions, to the point that some pharmacies witnessed a sit-in by several patients due to pharmacists’ rejection to dispense the drugs prescribed.
Amira underlined that the phenomenon of narcotic pills exists, underscoring that the solution does not lie in safe interaction with doctors and pharmacists, but rather in the Ministry of Health opening the doors of dialogue between health professionals and social scientists.
He stressed that the pharmacist sector was considering taking escalatory measures, including organizing protests in front of the Ministries of Health and Justice, specifically since the state of health of the arrested pharmacists is poor .
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