The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety will make it mandatory to check prescriptions for narcotic painkillers and propofol medication to prevent misuse of medical drugs. The government's first automated disposal system, 'Electronic Review 24 (SAFE-i24),' will be introduced for the import food review.
On the afternoon of the 9th, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety reported the "2022 Work Plan" containing these contents to President Yoon Suk Yeol.
For narcotics, the focus was on strengthening the safety net of the whole week, which encompasses prevention, crackdown, and rehabilitation. In order to quickly block the inflow of new drugs, the period until the designation of temporary drugs will be shortened from 52 days to 40 days.
Temporary drugs are not drugs under the current law, but they are treated and managed in the same way as drugs within three years due to concerns over misuse as substitute drugs. It takes effect from the date of the designation notice, and it reduces the internal process that takes 12 days to the designation notice.
It will expand the provision of statistics so that doctors can check whether they are overdoses and properly prescribe them, and push for a step-by-step mandatory inquiry of the history of each patient through social consensus. The medication history inquiry service was implemented in March 2021, but illegal prescriptions of medical drugs continued due to low utilization rates. Accordingly, the government plans to make it mandatory to check narcotic painkillers such as fentanyl and propofol. Some amendments to the "Drug Management Act" to the same effect have already been proposed by the National Assembly at the end of last year.
In terms of crackdown, unexpected on-site monitoring will be strengthened based on big data analysis of prescription and administration of medical drugs. At the same time, the number of addiction rehabilitation centers for drug addicts to return to society will be increased from two to three, and customized rehabilitation programs and Korean rehabilitation models for each target and drug will also be developed.
In the field of imported food administration, electronic screening 24 will be launched for the first time. The move is aimed at increasing speed and accuracy by converting human document inspections into digital automatic screening. As 365 days and 24 hours of screening are possible, the processing period is expected to be reduced from an average of 1 day to 5 minutes and about 6 billion won in annual logistics costs will be reduced. An official from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety explained, "It can also increase the number of workers who were reviewing imported food documents."
Writer: Yeyoung Jeon
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