Deontological violations of community pharmacies in Turkey

Abstract

Prevention of deontological violations committed in community pharmacies is important for the protection of public health, the reputation of pharmacy profession and public finance. It has been shown that these deontological violations increase during periods of liberalization policies applied in the healthcare field and economic crises (Kıran 2009; Kıran and Mandıracıoğlu 2013). There are many laws and regulations related to pharmacy, mainly the Deontology Regulation of the Turkish Pharmacist's Association (TPA), as well as binding provisions in agreements of Social Security Institution (SSI) in order to prevent community pharmacists in Turkey to be getting involved in deontological violations. In recent years, "Regulation on the Establishment of the Collusion Evaluation Commissions and its Working Rules and Principles" issued by the Turkish Ministry of Health, Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency which entered into force on 14.03.2016 is also an important legislative regulation. In Article 4/d of this Regulation; "Collusion is defined as; business activity jointly or individually by someone other than the pharmacist who appears as the owner and responsible manager of the pharmacy, whether or not he/she is in line of duty, through confidential or open, written or oral agreements as well as all such activities" (TİTCK Circular 2016).