Pharmacy Practice in

BALINBIN, Justine Kate

CORONEL, Lixee Lyka
GERALDINO, Clarissa Grace
PLATON, Justy Kate
MALOK, Yhyssa Mae

T H AI LAN D
Pharmacy_PSU_(Eng.)(360p).mp4
 HISTORY
• 1887, His Royal Highness Siriraj Kakuthapan, Crown Prince of King
Chulalongkorn, Rama V, died of dysentery. The king donated a piece of
land and money for the construction of Siriraj Hospital as the first royal
hospital for the care of the Thai people

• 1901 The formal medical education in Thailand began when His Majesty
the King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) founded the Royal Medical School on
(presently Siriraj Hospital Medical School, Mahidol University).

• 1914, the first Pharmacy School was separated from the medical school
and became part of Chulalongkorn University

• During the early period of pharmacy curriculum, there was no law to

control the compounding, dispensing and advertising of drugs. There
were only a few students admitted each year because the profession
was not recognized by public and other health professions.
 HISTORY
• 1923 that King Vajiravudh (Rama VI) issued the first Medical Act 1 limit the
compounding of drug only to those trained (pharmacists) but did not control the
dispensing and advertising of drugs.

• 1929 The Pharmaceutical Association of Siam was founded by pharmacists'

coalition.

• 1936, the separation of Medical Act into Drug Control Act and Profession Control
Act succeeded, pharmacy license is required for practicing pharmacists

• 1990, the concept of clinical pharmacy was introduced

• 1993, establishment of the United States‐Thai Consortium for the Development

of Pharmacy Education in Thailand

• 1994, The Pharmaceutical Profession Act was adopted and the Pharmacy
Council is established as the legal body to govern the pharmacy profession.

•2001, Board of Pharmaceutical Specialties was created by the Pharmacy Council ,

the first area of specialty to be implemented is in Pharmaceutical Care.
 PRACTICES
1. Country background and vital health statistics Thailand
- a democratic country with constitutional monarchy.
- located at the center of the Indochina peninsula in Southeast Asia.
- approx. area cover of 524,000 km2, 77 provinces
- Free education up to grade 12, Literacy rate 97% in 2010
- experiencing rapid change in demographics. [increase in elder population
and decline of total fertility rate]
- Chronic and behavior-related diseases, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis [health
problem of Thai population]
• - Cancer, accidents, hypertension, cerebrovascular disease, and heart
disease [leading cause of death in 2010]
• - Total healthcare expenditure approx. $25.3 billion. Costs are expected
to increase to $47.9 billion by 2026, reflecting a ten-year compound
annual growth rate of 6.6%. Healthcare expenditure as a proportion of
GDP is also sizable at 6.6%. [total healthcare expenditure in 2019]
 PRACTICES
2. Overview of healthcare system
•Healthcare services are delivered by private and public sectors (majority)
•Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) – organized as a multilevel structure to ensure
geographical equity and delivery system efficiency.
•- Drugstore for:
a. Modern medicine (most common drugstore in Thailand)
Type 1 – licensed to sell modern medicines and operated by RPh [community
pharmacy]
Type 2 – licensed to sell ready-packed modern medicines and operated by
other Healthcare professionals like nurse [drug classification system in Section 5]
b. Traditional medicines
c. Veterinary medicines
d. Wholesale drugstore
 PRACTICES
•Ratio of citizen to healthcare to healthcare providers has been improving
steadily. [increase and continuous production of health care personnel
•Health personnel are highly concentrate in cities and Bangkok
•Main public health insurance scheme

a. Civil Servant Medical Benefit Scheme (CSMBS) – cover civil servant,

public employees, and dependents (fully funded by a general tax using
prospective payment with a diagnosis-related group (DRG) approach for
inpatient services and a fee-for-service (FFS) payment method for
outpatient services).
b. Social Security Scheme (SSS) – cover private employees and temporary
public employees (funding source)
c. Universal Coverage Scheme (USC) – comes from general taxes
 PRACTICES
•Hospital pharmacy practice
•Before 1990- mainly responsible for drug procurement, distribution, and
dispensing of pharmaceutical products
•Early 1990- introduced to clinical pharmacy and pharmaceutical care concept
[shifted its focus from product to patient care in response to Pharmacy Council of
Thailand (PCT) vision]
•At Present, Thai hospital services are generally classified in to four categories:
a.Outpatient pharmacy service –focuses on clinical pharmacy practice
b.Inpatient pharmacy service –focuses on clinical pharmacy practice
c.Drug information services –focuses in answering, preparing, presenting drug-
related information and questions
d.Other services therapeutic drug therapy and quality Management

•Provision of herbal drug and Thai traditional medicines by pharmacy department

is very well recognized
 PRACTICES
•Community pharmacy practice
- prescribing and dispensing is not formally separated in Thailand
- one of the most accessible health professional and located in
ideal position to provide public health services.
- four community pharmacy services have been successfully
intregated into the healthcare delivery system and now
reimbursable
• a. Prescription refilling services
• b. Screening service for chronic disease
• c. Smoking cessation
• d. Medication therapy management
 PRACTICES
•System change facilitating the advancement of
pharmacy practice
a. Quality assurance system
•- support the advanced and expanding roles of pharmacist in Thailand
•- allows pharmacist to work as an integral part of the health system,
providing pharmacy services and ensuring optimal medication use system

b. Electronic medical records

•- to support and ensure the equilty and continuity of their patient care
•- dispensing informations are computerized
•- served as valuable assets for utilizzation review and research work that
aimed to enchance the quality use of medicine policies within hospital and at
a national
 EDUCATION
• In 1914, the first pharmacy school separated and became part of
Chulalongkorn University. It was a 3-year program and graduates
received a certificate of compounding, which then changed to a
certificate of pharmacy after 1932 when the term “pharmacy” was
adopted. During 1922-1936, the professional curriculum was developed,
led by British pharmacist A. H. Hale.9 Pharmacy education expanded to
a 4-year program in 1941, then to a 5-year bachelor of science in
pharmacy in 1957, and between 1989 and 1990, courses were further
developed to introduce the concept of clinical pharmacy.

• A 6-year PharmD program was proposed by the Pharmacy Education

Consortium of Thailand (PECT) in 1993 and at the First National
Pharmaceutical Education Forum in 1994, but it was not implemented
until 2008 by the Pharmacy Council of Thailand.
 How to be a pharmacist in Thailand?
• Thailand is one of many countries that offers pharmacy course around the world.
To be able to get the pharmacy degree and to become a pharmacist this things
should be done:
• All practicing pharmacists must acquire a degree known in Thailand as "Doctor of
Pharmacy (PharmD)". It takes 6 year for a pharmacy students to complete it that
is equivalent to a combined bachelor's degree and master's degree and should
be distinguished from the Doctor of Philosophy in Pharmacy (PhD in Pharmacy).
• Regardless of their specialty, all graduates must meet core professional
competency standards set by the Pharmacy Council of Thailand. They are
required to take and pass a national licensure examination after their completion
of sixth-year clerkship. However, regardless of their specialty track, all graduates
reciever the same professional license form the Pharmacy Council of Thailand.
• PharmD students enrolled from 2014 onward must pass 2 examinations that is
compulsory for all students and take it after completion of the fourth year and
clerkship.
• For Thai pharmacist, education continues after graduation. They are required to
participate in continuing pharmaceutical education.
• Pharmacists are expected to acquire at least 100 credits within 5 years and not
less than 10 credits in any given year.
 SALARY OF A PHARMACIST
The average pharmacist salary in Bangkok, Thailand is ฿951,155 (P 1,469,340.10) or
an equivalent hourly rate of ฿457 (P 705.97). This is 2% higher (+฿19,989 or
P30,878.92) than the average pharmacist salary in Thailand. In addition, they earn
an average bonus of ฿23,589 (P 36,440.18). Salary estimates based on salary
survey data collected directly from employers and anonymous employees in
Bangkok, Thailand. An entry level pharmacist (1-3 years of experience) earns an
average salary of ฿659,705 (P 1,019,109.41). On the other end, a senior level
pharmacist (8+ years of experience) earns an average salary of ฿1,222,939 (P
1889190.84).
 ADVANCEMENT
• Many hospitals and healthcare facilities in Thailand are applying digital
technology on their services such as use of smartphone technology to assist with
access to medical services (eHealth and mHealth), Electronic Medical Records
and telemedicine to provide medical advice remotely, as well as Remote Health
Monitoring Devices based on sensor technology.
• Thailand has positioned itself as a manufacturing hub of advanced medical
equipment that includes robotics software and hardware as part of a robust
supply chain in the Asia and Pacific region.
• Some success stories include elderly care robots, robot-assisted therapy for
people with special needs and arm rehabilitation robots.
• Robots dispense drugs accurately, smart ID cards minimise chance of human
error Cutting-edge technology is playing a vital role to improve the quality of
healthcare services. Many Thai hospitals use advanced technology to provide
their patients the best service. Patients at Bangkok’s Ramkhamhaeng Hospital
are met by high technology from the moment they first step inside, when they
receive a “guide card” that contains their data along with a barcode. It can also
help prevent a wrong vaccine being given to children, as staff scans the guide
card to make sure vaccine and patient match.
 ADVANCEMENT
• Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS).This speeds up
the treatment process as doctors can read patients’ files and monitor
their symptoms online anywhere at any time,

• ELECTRIC HEALTH RECORD: An electronic medical record is a

representation of all of a patient’s data that would originally be found in a
paper-based record. It contains all data including pathology, radiology
and clinical information that has been combined and structured in a
digital form. OCR: Optical character recognition is the mechanical or
electronic conversion of scanned images of handwritten, typewritten or
printed text into machine-encoded text. It is widely used as a form of
data entry from some sort of original paper data source, whether
documents, sales receipts, mail, or any number of printed records.
 ADVANCEMENT
• TheThe MoPH and schools of pharmacy from 4 regional universities established
a collaborative project, with the goals of engaging hospital pharmacists with
pharmaceutical care concepts and stimulating the expansion of their practice to
involve more patient care. The project provided extensive retraining, and hospital
pharmacists who chose to participate were required to attend a 5-day workshop
to gain pharmacotherapy knowledge and pharmaceutical care skills.
• The quality of pharmaceutical care in Thailand has been further strengthened
through health service development plans and implementation of a rational drug-
use system by public hospitals under the supervision of the MoPH.
• Thailand pharmacists are still involved in many settings such as pharmaceutical
manufacturing (eg, drug production, quality control, research, and development),
pharmaceutical enterprises (eg, pharmacy marketing) and public health (eg, law
and regulations, consumer protection).
• Pharmacist-managed diabetes clinic on clinical outcomes compared to usual
care received from primary care providers (PCPs). This comparison may more
definitively demonstrate the value of pharmacist management of chronic disease
states.
 CHALLENGES
• The number of pharmacists in hospitals and community pharmacies is
still insufficient.

• The situation has postponed the prospect of considering the Community

pharmacy to be incorporated at national level into the universal health
care scheme.

• The Pharmacy Council of Thailand expanded the 5-year Bachelor of

Pharmacy (BPharm) program to the 6-year Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm
D) program in 2008.

• Thailand has also set up a pharmacy residency program with the goal of
training clinical pharmacists. Problems with access to medicines in
Thailand typically involve the scarcity of rare disease medicines and the
affordability of costly medicines.
•
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