Jakarta, Sept 16 (Antara) - The medicine trade at Jakarta's Pramuka Market, a hub of semi-dispensary drugstores called Apotik Rakyat or Community Dispensaries, can reach a turnover of up to one billion rupiah per day.
Apart from this, community dispensaries also function in other shopping centers, such as in Jatinegara, Glodok and Pasar Baru markets. Pramuka Market is the most popular place to buy cheap medicines.
The Jakarta Office of the Food and Drug Supervision (BPOM) had last year estimated that the turnover of community dispensaries at Pramuka Market could reach Rp1 billion per day. "There about 100 medicine traders there. If each trader has a daily turnover of Rp10 million, the daily turnover of the community dispensaries reaches some Rp1 billion," Dewi Prawitsasri, the head of the BPOM for Jakarta, was quoted as saying in October last year by the Jawa Pos online (http://www2.jawapos.com).
The Pramuka Market has served as the hub of community dispensaries in Jakarta for about ten years now and the people know they can buy medicines at cheaper rates there.
Almost all kinds of medicines can be bought in the market, beginning from generic drugs for flu to heart medications at low prices.
However, the government is planning to close these community dispensaries following revelations that fake and expired medicines were being sold in these semi-dispensary drugstores.
Community dispensaries, as semi-dispensary drugstores are referred to in common parlance, are run under the Health Minister's Decree No.284/2007.
The Food and Drug Supervision Agency (BPOM) has submitted a proposal to Commission IX on health affairs of the House of Representatives regarding revoking the minister's decree on Community Dispensaries. In addition, the BPOM also proposed that there should be a moratorium on issuing permits to set up such drugstores.
The Jakarta Health Service has proposed to revoke the minister's regulation that allowed the establishment of semi-dispensary drugstores because these have been found committing many violations.
The Ministry of Health planned to eliminate community pharmacies in 2016 by either upgrading their status to a pharmacy or downgrading them to the level of a drugstore.
In fact, seven community pharmacies at the Pramuka market in Jakarta have been closed.
The closure of community dispensaries is seen to benefit big pharmaceutical companies operating dispensaries.
According to Adang Bachtiar, the chairman of the Indonesian Association of Public Health Experts (IAKMI), the closure of community dispensaries, locally known as `Apotik Rakyat¿ will only benefit big businesses, even foreigners, who could take over the vacuum left by community dispensaries.
"If the Apotik Rakyats are abolished, it will open up a field that would seem promising to owners of big capital, including foreigners," pointed out Adang when contacted by Antara telephonically on Friday.
Therefore, the IAKMI did not agree to the proposal to revoke the Health Minister's Regulation No. 284/MENKES/SK/III/2007 on Community Dispensary, which is the legal basis for the Apotik Rayat to operate.
The IAKMI chairman said the issue of regulations and requirements was raised earlier also. "If there are violations, then the supervision system should be blamed. Maybe, it is the supervision that is weak," Adang added.
He reminded that community dispensaries aim to enhance the public's access to medication, facilitating people to buy quality and safe drugs. "The use of the word 'community' also shows there is a component of empowerment involved --- the empowerment of the people," he underlined.
Previously, the Jakarta Police and the BPOM had conducted a joint operation and found illegal and expired drugs on sale at the Pramuka Market and at the Kramat Jati Market in East Jakarta.
Police officers uncovered instances of sale of expired medicines.
They had seized 1,963 strips of expired drugs, 49 bottles of liquid medicines, 24 sacks of expired drugs of various brands and types, 122 strips of expired drugs from which the expiration dates had been removed, three bottles of nail polish remover and cotton buds.
The Pramuka Market is known among Jakarta's denizens as the go-to place for cheap medicines and medical equipment.
The owner of the 'Rahmat Community Pharmacy,' identified as N, was named as the suspect.
"The suspect N had been selling expired drugs since last year," disclosed the Director of Special Criminal Investigation of the Jakarta Police, Commissioner Fadil Imran, in Jakarta last Monday.
N, assisted by three workers, earned Rp10 million a month from selling expired drugs. According to the Head of Unit 2 of Sub-Industry and Trade of the City Police, Commissioner Wahyu Nugroho, N had been into the drug business at the Pramuka Market since 2006.
Wahyu commented that N learnt how to change the expiration date of any drug by using a thinner liquid on the packaging in 2015, and had been committing such malpractice since then. ***4***(a014/INE/B003)EDITED BY INE(T.A014/B/BESSR/Bustanuddin) 16-09-2016 19:23: |
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar