Cancer Drug Repository Program Act
A diagnosis of cancer is initially devastating to a family. So many unanswered questions： Will there the pain, physical changes and how can I cope if lose my loved one? The last question a family needs to ask at this time is how can I afford the treatment. This the heartfelt sentiment of Sen. Vicki McDonald with the Cancer Drug Repository Program Act, LB756, introduced in the new legislative session. The purpose of the bill is to allow families with unused cancer medications to donate them to a pharmacy, hospital or nonprofit medical clinic. The medications would be inspected and reissued to another cancer patient.
Even so, because of the exacting standards of medical practice that ate necessary to protect patients, we have serious reservations about the McDonald bill. The proposal requires medications to be in their original, sealed, tamper evident, unit-dose packaging. An exception allows the packaging to be opened, but the unit dose seal must still be intact. Medications accepted into the program must also have an expiration date longer than six months away.
The Department of Health and Human Services is charged with setting up the program, establishing the criteria for inspecting the drugs, determining what medications will be accepted and the maximum handling fee a dispensing facility can charge. The bill also requires the person receiving the medication to sign a form releasing liability to the dispensing facility, state, manufacturer, etc., for potentially altered medications. This sounds like a compassionate, caring method of helping one aspect of coping with cancer. Then again, would the benefit of such a program outweigh the risk to even one patient whose medication was not effective because it sat in a hot car for a length of time and the potency had diminished?
LB756 is an admirable attempt for donation of expensive medications back to cancer patients. In reality, however, few pharmacies will be able to maintain the paperwork process required in this bill. In addition, few local pharmacies handle chemotherapy medication distribution.
Patient safety is a priority in most health care professional''s practice. The thought of dispensing a medication where the handling of it could not be tracked violates the rules of a safe, professional practice. Cancer patients tend to be some of our most vulnerable patients. Many times their immune systems are severely compromised from the cancer medications and treatment. Even a slight error or alteration of their medication could have a devastating, negative effect. The Cancer Drug Repository Act has the best intentions of these patients in mind to help meet the financial burden of cancer treatment. Even the best intentions, however, are not always the right thing to do.
一、全文翻譯
家庭的某個(gè)成員被診斷患有癌癥之后對(duì)這個(gè)家庭來(lái)說(shuō)無(wú)異于災(zāi)難。有很多未知的問(wèn)題：是否會(huì)有疼痛及體質(zhì)的變化，如果失去所愛(ài)的人我又該如何面對(duì)？一個(gè)家庭要問(wèn)的最終一個(gè)問(wèn)題是：是否負(fù)擔(dān)得起醫(yī)療費(fèi)。這是參議員McDonald對(duì)于“癌癥藥物積存項(xiàng)目法案，LB756”的由衷感受。這一法案已被納入新的立法程序。這項(xiàng)草案的目的是讓那些擁有尚未使用的癌癥藥物的家庭，將那些藥物捐獻(xiàn)給藥店、醫(yī)院或非盈利性質(zhì)的診所，待藥物被檢查以后重新給其他癌癥病人使用。
即使如此，因?yàn)橛脕?lái)保護(hù)病人的醫(yī)療標(biāo)準(zhǔn)極其嚴(yán)格，我們對(duì)McDonald提出的草案持嚴(yán)肅的保留意見(jiàn)。建議中要求藥物須原封不動(dòng)，沒(méi)有人用過(guò)，分劑量單位包裝。一種特殊情況是：包裝可以被打開(kāi)，但是，各劑量單位包裝必須是原封不動(dòng)。另外，此項(xiàng)目可接收的藥物至少還要有六個(gè)月以上的有效期。
衛(wèi)生和公共事業(yè)部門(mén)負(fù)責(zé)設(shè)立該項(xiàng)目，確立審查藥物的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，決定什么樣的藥物可以被接受，以及分配機(jī)構(gòu)最多可收取的手續(xù)費(fèi)。草案同時(shí)提出，接受藥物的人要填寫(xiě)一個(gè)表格，表示如果發(fā)生用藥改變，分發(fā)機(jī)構(gòu)、國(guó)家和制藥商將不負(fù)責(zé)任。這個(gè)立法聽(tīng)起來(lái)是種富有同情心的、人道的幫助患者治療癌癥的方法。同時(shí)再次要提出的是，如果一個(gè)病人只因?qū)⑺幬锓旁诟邷氐能?chē)內(nèi)持續(xù)了一段時(shí)間，使藥的效力降低而致使藥物起不到應(yīng)有的作用的話(huà)，那么這個(gè)項(xiàng)目還會(huì)是利多弊少嗎？
“癌癥藥物積存法”是將昂貴的癌癥藥物捐贈(zèng)給癌癥患者的一種值得贊賞的嘗試。然而在實(shí)際中，很少有藥店能夠一直維持這項(xiàng)草案中所提出的進(jìn)行書(shū)面記錄的要求；而且，很少會(huì)有當(dāng)?shù)氐乃幍攴咒N(xiāo)這些化學(xué)療法藥物。
在多數(shù)醫(yī)護(hù)行業(yè)，病人的安全是頭等重要的事情，分發(fā)某種藥物而不能追溯其如何處理的這種做法，違背了職業(yè)操作的安全規(guī)范。癌癥病人通常是最容易受到傷害的病人之一，癌癥藥物和治療經(jīng)常嚴(yán)重危及他們的免疫系統(tǒng)，即使是用藥過(guò)程中犯一個(gè)小錯(cuò)誤和稍微改變用藥，也可能帶來(lái)災(zāi)難性的反作用�！鞍┌Y藥物積存法”表達(dá)了人們想幫助這些病人的良好意愿，減少他們?cè)谥委煱┌Y過(guò)程中的經(jīng)濟(jì)負(fù)擔(dān)，然而最良好的意愿不一定就意味著這是最正確的事情。
