Pharmacists: Credentialing and Legal Reform Needed Before Prescribing Expansion

Pharmacists in Malaysia support expanding their prescribing authority but stress the need for clear training, credentialing, and oversight standards first. The debate follows a Ministry of Health proposal to use micro-credentialing for non-doctors to address workforce shortages. A senior clinical pharmacist argues that formalizing existing clinical roles, especially in chronic disease management, would improve governance but requires infrastructure like postgraduate training and competency assessments. The pharmacist warns that legal reform alone is insufficient without a national credentialing framework.