'Vouchers Should Pay For Medication Checks'

A group of pharmacists is calling on the government to include medication checks in the elderly health care voucher scheme.

They say such annual checks would help elderly people identify medicines that don't work together, have side-effects or those they don't need anymore.

Iris Chang, who's the president of the Practising Pharmacists Association, said foreign studies showed that one-fifth of hospital visits are due to medication-related problems.

She said problems arising from incorrect drugs, incorrect dosage, or non-adherence to prescriptions cause the elderly to visit the hospital more frequently, so if the risks could be reduced by regular medication checks, the overcrowding in public hospitals could hopefully be eased.

Under the voucher scheme, people aged 65 and above are given HK$2,000 a year to spend on various medical services. They're allowed to accumulate up to HK$5,000 in total.

The government earlier proposed a limit on how much the elderly can spend on eyecare services at HK$2,000 every two years, in light of "a disproportionate number of claims with exceptionally high amounts made by optometrists".

Chang expressed reservations about this proposal.

“The cap on certain services would restrict the flexibility, and also limit the freedom of choice of the elderly to use the resource of the elderly health voucher in the ways that they need them,” she said.

“You will find the elderly will be left in a position where they have vouchers left, but they have reached that limit and they cannot use it and that would be a waste,” she added.