Madame Nguyen Thi Phuong Cham, formerly a pharmacist in the Ministry of Health in Vietnam, and a Pain and Policy Studies Group Fellow, has published research in the Journal of Pain & Symptom Management, entitled: Toward safe accessibility of opioid pain medicines in Vietnam and other developing countries: a balanced policy method.
As reported on the Pain Policy blog:
“Some important positive outcomes of this work include:
- the MoH issued amended Opioid Prescribing Regulations for treating pain improving access to opioids by removing a maximum dose of opioids per day and allowing pain patients, in addition to cancer and AIDS patients, to receive an opioid prescription for up to seven days per prescription
- the Drug Administration of Vietnam (DAV) revised its regulations on Procurement, Purchase, Distribution, Storage, and Dispensing of Narcotic and Psychotropic Drugs – removing tight restrictions on the number of pharmacies allowed to dispense opioids
- morphine consumption has increased each year, and as of 2010 was nine-fold greater than in 2003; and
- the number of hospitals offering palliative care has increased from 3 to 15.”
Read more on the Pain Policy blog.
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