An urge to improve the management in pharmacy of Chinese medicine: an overture of Good Pharmacy Practice (GPP) for pharmacy of Chinese medicine in Hong Kong

Abstract

: Good Pharmacy Practice (GPP) is a critical standard in the pharmacy setting for Western pharmacy services, but it is unusual for the Chinese medicine (CM) pharmaceutical care. In Hong Kong, some continuous phenomena such as the increasing cases of complaint for the CM pharmaceutical industry and the increasing cases of poisoning of CMs etc., reveal that it is urgent to implement a more precise and reliable measure for monitoring and regulating the pharmacy of CM (PCM). Through the implementation of GPP, PCM setting can be kept at high standards of quality assurance and those dispensing practices can be monitored in a more effective way. Also, the uniformity of the dispensing CMs can be ensured with the GPP so that the safety and efficacy of CMs would be more reliable for patients. Furthermore, the implementation of GPP is the new direction for the development of CM industry because it can standardize and reinforce the pharmacies’ operations. This paper discusses GPP helps to tackle the existing problems in the CM industry. These findings can serve as references for relevant regulatory authorities and CM stakeholders, increasing the CM industry’s competency in Hong Kong. For the further development of CM in Hong Kong, GPP as an international standard is an important measure for the promotion of CM services and products to the world.