THE Poisons (Amendment) Bill 2019 proposes that doctors and dentists must provide prescriptions upon a patient’s request. As much as we understand the reason for this amendment, and that is to give patients the right to buy their medications from the clinic or their choice of pharmacies themselves, the wording of the law must be amended so that patients cannot make unreasonable requests for certain medications.

The sentence has to imply that patients have a right to request for the prescription slip instead of having the right to request for prescriptions itself.