Table of contentsMalaysia's healthcare system before the COVID-19 pandemicMalaysia's healthcare system during the COVID-19 pandemicConclusionThere are Many pharmacy-related topics for presentation and further exploration, ranging from drug safety and pharmaceutical advancements to pharmaceutical ethics and patient counseling. However, for my personal study, I chose to analyze the Malaysian healthcare system before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”? Get the original essay In December 2019, SARS CoV-2, which stands for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, a newly contagious zoonotic disease began to spread from China to neighboring nations. This infection is primarily spread from person to person through respiratory droplets created by exhalation when breathing, sneezing, coughing, or even speaking. After a few months, the global expansion of the disease approached 100 countries, prompting the WHO to classify the disease as a pandemic. One of the first preventative measures taken by several governments around the world was the complete closure of cities, often called lockdowns. The lockdown is expected to minimize transmission of COVID-19, leading to fewer new cases, fewer hospital admissions, fewer intensive care unit admissions, and perhaps a lower mortality rate. Management of the COVID-19 pandemic and control of the epidemic would be incomplete without the participation of pharmacists. The International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) has highlighted the critical role pharmacists must play throughout the outbreak by issuing several guidelines on instructions and information regarding COVID-19 outbreaks. The Malaysian healthcare system is divided into two levels: public and private. Everyone has access to the public system, while the private system primarily serves the metropolitan population and those who have the financial resources to pay for health care. The Ministry of Health (MOH), the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) or the Ministry of Defense are in charge of public health establishments (MOD). Hospital pharmacy is a subset of pharmacy integrated into the care of a medical facility, including hospitals, outpatient clinics, poison centers, drug information centers, and residential care settings. Hospital pharmacy means a health care service that includes the art, practice and craft of selecting, preparing, storing, preparing and dispensing drugs and medical devices. The profession also involves advising patients and other healthcare professionals on the safe, effective and efficient use of medications. To provide different sets of services efficiently, the pharmacy department of a hospital can be divided into three broad sections: inpatient pharmacy, outpatient pharmacy and medical store. Malaysia's healthcare system before the COVID-19 pandemicSupply chain management includes the selection of materials and suppliers. selection, purchase, receipt, control and organization of material in stock, storage, distribution and assistance to the target audience. All actions related to drug management and supply chain must be carried out in accordance with established rules and best practices, involving only certified and professional personnel. For better compliance with current standards,Facility-specific policies and procedures, including SOPs, must be designed and followed. When medications are delivered by the supplier, pharmacists are subject to acceptance testing to ensure they are not getting poor quality items. If there is an error in the distribution of drugs and devices, it can cause serious problems for the hospital and patients. The primary function of inpatient pharmacy services is to deliver medications to patients on the ward using various mechanisms. The example of inpatient pharmaceutical services is parenteral nutrition, extemporaneous pharmaceutical preparations, reconstitution of cytotoxic drugs and drug information services. The duty of the hospital pharmacist is to recommend and deliver individualized drug administration methods and doses. Hospital pharmacists can provide information about potential side effects and ensure compatibility of medications with other medications. They will frequently observe the effects of treatments to ensure they are effective, safe and appropriate for the user. Because hospital pharmacists must collaborate closely with other staff such as doctors, nurses and dietitians, information must be communicated in a clear and understandable manner. To avoid confusion, medication sheets constitute an important source of information and an effective means of communication between hospital pharmacists and other members of the medical team. Then they need to keep track of patients who are discharged from the hospital and review the discharge report. This requires the pharmacist to review the patient's medication record to verify that the prescription issued corresponds to the medication listed on the discharge statement. The main function of the outpatient pharmacy is to provide medications to hospitalized patients upon discharge or outpatients who consult a doctor in hospital clinics. The main strategy is to invite patients to physically collect their medications on a monthly basis. The duration of a pharmacy session may vary between hospitals, since it is determined by the stock of pharmaceutical products offered to patients at each visit. There are also a variety of value-added service (VAS) mechanisms available for prescription drug refills, such as drive-thru pharmacies. However, after-sales service is not available in most hospitals and may vary depending on patients' suitability and medications. For example, all pharmaceutical products, especially cold chain and liquid dose medicines, cannot be transported by courier services. Additionally, it offers medication counseling that includes everything that happens during a medication evaluation. Meanwhile, the Drug Information Center is available to answer questions from healthcare providers and the general public, developing guidelines, conducting pharmaceutical and therapeutic committee activities, educational activities, conducting studies and reporting adverse drug reactions. The Malaysian healthcare system during the COVID-19 pandemicDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain management is critical and requires continuous monitoring. The medical store hospital pharmaceutical and medical logistics pharmacist should facilitate the purchase of protective equipment to protect healthcare workers, such as personal protective equipment (PPE),disposable medical products, hand sanitizers and others. PPE includes Tyvek suits, 3-ply surgical or medical masks (ear loop or tie), respirator masks (medical or particulate), medical cap, headgear, face shield, goggles , plastic aprons, surgical isolation gowns, disposable gloves, legs. waterproof shoe covers, overshoes and boots. There was a global shortage of PPE during the first wave of COVID-19 in Malaysia, so PPE sewn by healthcare workers and non-government groups is donated to the hospital and assessed by pharmacists to confirm their quality. Additionally, a PPE Tracker: An online spreadsheet is used to update their daily PPE balance. The pharmacist can also stock up on alcohol-based hand sanitizers. Self-production in large quantities aims to alleviate shortages, meet growing demand and reduce costs. Additionally, the lockdown imposed in the majority of countries has made it difficult for pharmacy departments to procure medical supplies, especially drugs for the treatment of COVID-19. Therefore, pharmacists should update the details of their daily drug consumption and maintain constant contact with the state pharmaceutical departments to procure drugs for routine use in their hospitals. Since April 2020, Pharmaceutical Information Systems (PhI) have been used for reporting and monitoring the daily stock status at Ministry of Health sites, as the majority of COVID-19 drugs and antivirals have been used off-label, notably hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil), azithromycin (Zithromax), etc. To minimize overcrowding and medication refill time, changes have been made to outpatient pharmacy services. Pharmacy Value Added Services (VAS) are implemented where patients can collect their medicines through pharmacy counter appointment system, Medicines by Post, Drive-through Pharmacy (Farmasi Pandu Lalu), Locker4U and the Integrated Drug Distribution System (IDDS). . However, the pharmacist will analyze the case before dispensing the medicine using the VAS. When there are changes in drug therapy, patients are always advised to visit the pharmacy for scheduled medication collection and advice. Instead of receiving a one or two month supply of medication, patients receive three months' supply of medication to reduce the amount of travel required. The patient waiting room has been set up to respect the physical distancing standard (1 m), and pharmacists working at the counter must wear a face shield over a surgical mask and keep a safe distance from patients. Hospital pharmacy services are carried out as usual but with additional precautions. This involves disinfecting their workspaces daily, wearing PPE, and rotating hazard sheets to reduce contact. Meanwhile, other strategies, such as the use of PhIS, enable online prescriptions, drug procurement, medication administration and advice recording. The drug distribution technique was changed from a unit-of-dose system to a unit-of-use system, and the frequency of drug administration was reduced from daily to three times a week. Medicines are delivered to wards via a cleaned workspace and unused medicines are decontaminated with a solution.