The nation’s main pharmacists’ association on Tuesday said that it was gearing up to expand its home delivery service, as the government prepares to implement home quarantine protocols for people with mild or no COVID-19 symptoms, amid a rise in domestic cases.
The Federation of Taiwan Pharmacists Associations (FTPA), which has about 25 member groups nationwide, said that it was aiming to get at least 2,000 pharmacies involved in the program to deliver medication to people at home.
The goal is to meet demand for such a service when the central government launches its home quarantine protocols for COVID-19 cases with mild or no symptoms, FTPA president Huang Chin-shun (黃金舜) told a news conference in Taipei.
Photo: CNA
While the FTPA has experience delivering medication to targeted patients, it has never offered a large-scale delivery service, he said.
Citing data from the National Health Insurance Administration, Huang said that as of the end of February there were about 6,900 National Health Insurance-contracted pharmacies nationwide.
So far, 52 of them have responded positively to the FTPA’s proposal to offer an expanded home delivery service, he said.
Under the Central Epidemic Command Center’s (CECC) home quarantine plan, only symptomatic medication and drugs for the treatment of chronic illnesses would be available for home delivery, through a dedicated mobile app that would be rolled out by the central government.
Drugs used for the treatment of COVID-19 would not be included, the CECC has said.
Participating pharmacies would be included on the central government’s mobile app, which could be used by COVID-19 cases in quarantine to choose which pharmacy to order their medication from, after they receive a doctor’s prescription, Huang said.
The pharmacy option would be available via a QR code that would be generated for COVID-19 cases after every remote medical consultation, which would ensure that the prescription could not be used more than once, he said.
Once a pharmacy receives a prescription, the medication would be delivered within 24 hours, Huang said.
The QR code assigned to each case would safeguard their personal information, FTPA vice secretary-general Chiu Chien-chiang (邱建強) told the news conference.
That would be a more secure method than the Line messaging app currently being used in a trial run for the home quarantine program by seven New Taipei City hospitals to send prescription medicines to pharmacies, which then deliver the drugs, the FTPA said.
Once the home quarantine measure is officially implemented nationwide, all cities and counties would be required to use the dedicated central government app to have medication delivered at home, Huang said.
On Monday, as the CECC prepared to finalize its home quarantine guidelines later in the week, it met with representatives from medical associations and with health officials from New Taipei City, Taoyuan and Kaohsiung to discuss the measure.
At the meeting, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the CECC, said that a nationwide 24-hour mobile service platform would have to be set up to enable people with COVID-19 to easily reach doctors and other health personnel from their home for consultations, assistance and advice.
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