Personal pharmacies to be set for welfare recipients, say sources

November 26, 2017

Tokyo- Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare is discussing plans to designate a personal pharmacy for each welfare recipient to prevent side effects of drugs and cut medical spending, Jiji Press learned Sunday.

If a recipient receives prescription drugs at different pharmacies after seeing doctors at more than one hospital, the wrong combination of drugs could cause side effects.

The ministry hopes that the unified management of medication at personal pharmacies will help prevent such adverse effects, ministry sources said.

The personal pharmacy system is also aimed at avoiding double prescriptions and curbing medical costs and welfare benefits, the sources said.

It plans to issue notice on the system to local governments as early as next year, according to the sources.

Model projects have been under way including one in the western Japan city of Osaka. The ministry aims to start the system in stages in other parts of Japan.

In the model projects that started in Osaka and Aomori Prefecture, northeastern Japan, in the current fiscal year, organizers matched individual welfare recipients with pharmacies, mainly on the basis of the recipients' wishes and local transportation conditions.

The city of Higashiosaka, Osaka Prefecture, western Japan, launched its own system in 2014. After a personal pharmacy was designated for each welfare recipient who previously used more than one, medical costs have declined, according to the sources.

Considering the differences between urban areas with many pharmacies and remote areas where the number of pharmacies are limited and no easy access to them is available, the ministry plans to promote the system in line with the situations of the respective areas.

The ministry has been encouraging welfare recipients to use generic drugs, which are more reasonably priced than original drugs. The personal pharmacy system is part of the effort.

In some cases, original drugs are offered when pharmacies run out of stock for specified generic drugs. In the new system, personal pharmacies will find it easier to stock up on generic drugs according to demand from individual welfare recipients. Jiji Press