The Portuguese Order of Physicians (Ordem dos Médicos) has expressed its “absolute rejection” today of a proposal from the Ministry of Health to allow the country’s pharmacies to prescribe and dispense prescription medicines without the intervention of a doctor.
Calling the measure “an unacceptable affront to patient safety, to the quality of healthcare provision and to the very basic principle of medicine” the head of the order, Carlos Cortes, described the idea as “irresponsible and irrational” – even in the case of an apparently minor illness.
