Six health benefits offered at pharmacies
 
National Health Security Office (NHSO) joins hands with the Pharmacy Council of Thailand (PCT) in providing six health benefits at pharmacies to promote people’s good health and prevent diseases.
 


The NHSO secretary-general Dr Jadej Thammatacharee said that these benefits are for members of the Universal Coverage Scheme (UCS).
 
They are:
Oral contraceptive pills and family planning consultation: Each woman can get three sets of birth control pills per consultation, and up to 13 in a year.
 
Emergency pills: Each woman can request up to two doses in a year.
 
Condoms: Each person can request 10 condoms a week and up to 52 requests a year.  
 
Pregnancy test kits
Iron-folic tablets: Available for women aged between 13 and 45.
 
Up to 52 tablets can be requested in a year.
 
Physical and mental health check-up: For people aged between 15 and 34, the check-up covers body mass index; blood pressure monitoring; assessment of health risks from alcohol, smoking, and substances; depression and anxiety.
 
The pharmacists also provide consultation for healthy behavioral changes, including smoking cessation.
 
Those aged between 35 and 59 get similar health check-up packages, with additions of blood sugar tests, and assessment of health risks from heart disease and stroke.
 
These services will be provided by pharmacists, who passed the training provided by the PCT.
 
Their stores are certified with the council’s Good Pharmacy Practice, which ensures the quality and standard of services.
 
These pharmacies are also part of the healthcare network that can refer their customers to hospitals if they require medical treatments.
 

Preecha Bhandtivej, PCT’s vice president, said that the services are part of the NHSO and PCT partnership to increase people’s access to health promotion and disease prevention.
 
The partnership involves trained pharmacists, who are close to communities as people often visit pharmacies when they get sick.
 
More than 600 pharmacies have joined this partnership. Over 3,000 pharmacists passed the PCT’s training.
 
They are identified with stickers printed with “My Pharmacy” pasted in front of their stores.  
  
“Customers can show Thai identification cards to get the services,” said Preecha.
 
“We encourage them to have the health check-up at least once a year, which will effectively prevent them from developing severe symptoms relating to non-communicable diseases.
 


They can also consult with pharmacists and save time from unnecessary hospital visits.”
 
Around 63% of the global population’s death is associated with non-communicable diseases.
 
The rate is 73% for Thailand, prompting the NHSO and PCT to launch the partnership to provide people access to screening tests at pharmacies
 
PCT is planning to launch the “My Pharmacy” mobile application, which will allow customers to locate the pharmacies joining the partnership and reflect on their ideas and suggestion to improve the services.