Elderly friendly!
The large-print and audio version of the drug manual is online
-- The latest progress has been made in the project of procuratorial public interest litigation on the age-appropriate and barrier-free transformation of drug instructions
The length of a grain of rice can be stuffed with four Chinese characters, and adults with normal vision still need to struggle to see clearly, which is even more difficult for the elderly. In a pharmacy in Lianyungang City, Jiangsu Province, an elderly man who came to buy medicine said: "The instructions for drugs are too small, and it takes a lot of effort. ”
Hidden in the small piece of paper is the great livelihood. For nearly 300 million elderly people over 60 years old in the mainland, taking medicine may be daily "homework", and the drug information on the instructions is related to their drug safety, and even affects their life and health.
On October 13, the Eighth Procuratorate of the Supreme People's Procuratorate held a meeting to evaluate the progress of the public interest litigation project of the procuratorial public interest litigation project of the appropriate aging and barrier-free transformation of drug instructions. At the meeting, a variety of commonly used drugs for the elderly were displayed, and the drug traceability code (barcode starting with 8) on the medicine box was scanned with a mobile phone, and the content of the drug instruction manual could be broadcast by simple operation, and the large font could be switched.
On October 13, the Eighth Procuratorate of the Supreme People's Procuratorate held a meeting to evaluate the progress of the public interest litigation project of the procuratorial public interest litigation project of the appropriate aging and barrier-free transformation of drug instructions.
A small instruction manual is also a big livelihood
In 2022, there will be 280 million elderly people aged 60 and above on the mainland. According to data estimates from the National Health Commission, it is expected that during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the total number of elderly people aged 60 and above will exceed 300 million, entering the stage of moderate aging; Around 2035, the elderly population aged 60 and above will exceed 400 million, entering the stage of severe aging.
During the interview, the reporter learned that because they could not read the content of the instructions, some elderly people did not understand the contraindications and precautions of medication; Some elderly people do not read the instructions because they can't see clearly, and they think about taking medicine based on feelings. In addition, there is no Braille or large print on the packaging of medicines, which is also a safety hazard for blind and visually impaired people.
"The elderly are the main group of daily self-medication, but at present, the packaging and instruction manual size of most drugs is too small, resulting in hidden dangers in rational drug use and drug safety for elderly patients." Dai Yin, deputy to the National People's Congress and director of the publishing department of Zhongnan Publishing and Media Group Co., Ltd., put forward relevant suggestions at this year's two sessions. She said that the current "Provisions on the Administration of Drug Instructions and Labels" has been in force for more than 16 years, and there are no specific provisions on the paper size and font size of the instructions, only mentioning that "the text in the instructions should be clear".
Lianyungang has more than 50 years of pharmaceutical industry development history, known as "China Medicine Port", with many well-known pharmaceutical companies in the country. In February 2022, the Haizhou District Procuratorate of Lianyungang City paid attention to this issue in the performance of its duties. Zhang Li, chief procurator of the procuratorate, told reporters that procurators went into communities, pharmaceutical manufacturers and retail pharmacies, and conducted preliminary investigations through holding public interest litigation questions, conducting questionnaire surveys, and random interviews. Among the 20 commonly used drugs for the elderly randomly selected by retail pharmacies, the font size of the instructions was less than 7 and less than 2 mm.
The procuratorates of Lianyungang City and Haizhou District held round tables to discuss with regulatory authorities and pharmaceutical companies, and invited legal experts and printing experts to discuss industry technical specifications. The picture shows the printing company personnel discussing with you the most suitable text font size for ordinary people.
After the preliminary investigation results were reported to the Lianyungang Municipal Procuratorate, the two levels of procuratorates set up case-handling teams and activated an integrated case-handling mechanism to investigate the matter. After a large number of visits and investigations and round tables, the procuratorial organ proposed to the administrative organ with regulatory responsibilities that the manual should focus on improving the font size and logo of key information such as drug dosage, contraindications, and expiration date, and supporting measures for elderly pharmaceutical services.
Driven by the procuratorial recommendations, three pharmaceutical companies in Lianyungang City respectively changed the instructions of ibuprofen suspension, loratadine tablets, aconite Lizhong pills (concentrated pills) and other drugs from single-sided printing to double-sided printing, and changed the font size to larger, or increased the printing on some important precautions. Since November 2022, Lianyungang residents have been able to buy the three drugs of the pilot at pharmacies.
The Lianyungang procuratorate promoted the comparison of drug inserts before and after rectification.
According to feedback from retail pharmacies, most of the groups who consult basic information about drugs are elderly. Therefore, the market supervision and administration bureaus at the two levels of Lianyungang City and Haizhou District have tried to set up pharmaceutical service desks in 39 local drug retail pharmacies, configure printers, and provide enlarged versions of drug instructions to the public in need.
In response to the suggestions of the deputies, special supervision was carried out
The Lianyungang Municipal Procuratorate has taken the lead in making useful attempts in the age-appropriate and barrier-free transformation of drug instructions. The Supreme People's Procuratorate promptly summed up experience, guided procuratorial organs in Shanghai, Guangdong and other places with local legislative authorization to carry out barrier-free public interest litigation, and encouraged drug manufacturers and traders to equip their outer packaging with Braille, large characters, and audio instructions, and set up barrier-free identification marks, technologies, and languages.
The Shenzhen Municipal Procuratorate held case consultation meetings with administrative organs, the Municipal Association for the Blind, pharmaceutical enterprises, hospitals and pharmaceutical institutions.
In May this year, representative Dai Yin proposed to the Supreme People's Procuratorate to try to use public interest litigation or procuratorial suggestions to promote the age-appropriate and barrier-free transformation of drug inserts. The Supreme People's Procuratorate attaches great importance to this, and promotes the special supervision of procuratorial public interest litigation in Hunan Province for the barrier-free transformation of the manuals of commonly used food, drugs, and health products for the elderly.
At the assessment meeting on October 13, Chen Jing, deputy director of the Eighth Procuratorial Department of the Hunan Provincial Procuratorate, briefed on the progress of the Hunan Provincial Procuratorate's handling of cases. At present, the Changsha Municipal Procuratorate has reached a consensus with the Changsha Municipal Supervision Bureau through consultation, combined with the establishment of Changsha "Ping An Pharmacy" in 2023, selected 60 pharmacies in the city to carry out the pilot of barrier-free transformation of drug services, and promoted the construction of a barrier-free environment for pharmacy medication services by opening a special area for drug services for the elderly, clearing fast service channels, providing magnifying glasses, and providing copies of enlarged versions of drug instructions.
The procurator handling the case of the Changsha City Procuratorate in Hunan Province visited the pharmacy.
"Before the proposal was made, there were already many voices about the problem of the drug label. Some pharmaceutical companies received calls from consumers, saying that the instructions could not be read clearly and understood. The intervention of procuratorial public interest litigation has provided more communication channels for solving this problem and achieved obvious results. Representative Dain said.
In the process of grassroots pairing and joint construction, the Shanghai Putuo District Procuratorate received a report from the deputy to the district people's congress and the secretary of the general party branch of a neighborhood committee that most of the drug instructions were too small, and many elderly people had difficulties in reading the drug instructions. Prosecutors of the court travelled to the community to conduct investigation and verification.
The procuratorial organs in Shanghai and Guangdong have also made new progress in handling cases. Under the promotion of the procuratorate, a pharmaceutical company in Shanghai added an electronic two-dimensional code for drug instructions, which users can scan to realize the electronic display of drug instructions, and at the same time added a voice playback function to effectively realize barrier-free information transmission for middle-aged and elderly groups and visually impaired people reading drug instructions. A well-known pharmaceutical company in Shenzhen has printed Braille on the packaging box of "Cold Spirit", and is currently testing the wear test of long-distance transportation of drugs.
In May 2023, under the promotion of the Putuo District Procuratorate, a pharmaceutical company realized the transformation of electronic QR codes with voice and large-character functions added to drug instructions, and elderly volunteers obtained a better user experience.
Article 37 of the Law on the Construction of Barrier-free Environment, which came into effect on September 1 this year, stipulates that the relevant departments of the State Council shall improve the management standards for drug labels and instructions, and require drug manufacturers and traders to provide audio, large-print, Braille, electronic and other accessible formats of labels and instructions. The practical exploration of procuratorial public interest litigation in this regard provides an important practical basis for the Barrier-free Environment Construction Law to make mandatory provisions on the accessibility of drug insert information. Article 63 of the Act provides, inter alia, for procuratorial public interest litigation.
"Procuratorial public interest litigation has achieved good results in promoting the construction of barrier-free environment. The inclusion of public interest litigation in the Barrier-free Environment Construction Law is also the result of the continuous promotion of the Supreme People's Procuratorate. Li Qingzhong, chairman of the China Association for the Blind, said that Braille and large-print versions can solve some problems, but they also have certain limitations, and it is necessary to solve problems through information means and clarify specific standards and norms.
Reduce the burden on pharmaceutical companies and benefit all members of society
"The Supreme People's Procuratorate's implementation of the age-appropriate and barrier-free transformation of drug inserts through the form of a procuratorial public interest litigation project is a useful attempt to expand the supervision and handling of cases in the field of information accessibility and service accessibility." Lv Shiming, member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, former vice chairman of the China Disabled Persons' Federation and president of the China Volunteers Association for the Disabled, affirmed the work of the procuratorial organs and also proposed that all members of society should generally feel the dividends brought by the construction of a barrier-free environment, which everyone can feel and everyone can participate.
The inclusiveness of age-appropriate transformation certainly includes pharmaceutical companies. In the limited space of drug inserts, it is indeed very difficult to explain the drug information and explain it completely. If the production cost of an enterprise increases significantly, it will not only affect the company's own business activities, but also the corresponding costs may eventually be passed on to consumers.
"We have also fully listened to the opinions of pharmaceutical companies." Zhang Li told reporters that pharmaceutical companies said that the transformation of font size change and front and back printing without changing the size and font of the manual does not increase the cost of the enterprise, and has a positive attitude towards the aging transformation work.
"What we pursue is not only to be able to see clearly, but also to understand and popularize the drug manual." Representative Dai Yin learned from the survey that pharmaceutical companies also expect to be more adapted to the development of the times in the specification of drug labels.
National People's Congress deputy Dai Yin (far right) conducts research on the issue of drug labels.
"It is necessary to let the people feel the dividends of barrier-free environment and the temperature of the rule of law, but also to take into account the development and interests of pharmaceutical companies, and the use of information technology to solve the problem of information accessibility is a convenient and effective solution, but it also needs to be accompanied by relevant service accessibility measures." Qiu Jinghui, deputy director of the Eighth Procuratorate Office of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, said.
On July 20 this year, the Eighth Procuratorate held a discussion with Ali Health on issues related to the application of drug manual traceability codes. Subsequently, the Eighth Procuratorate instructed and coordinated the procuratorial authorities in Shanghai, Jiangsu, Shenzhen and other places to take the initiative to connect with Ali Health's "Rest assured on the Code" platform in their work to realize the functional presentation of the simplified version and the complete version of the manual. The drugs displayed at the evaluation meeting came from the cooperation between major pharmaceutical companies and Ali Health platform, which can realize the voice broadcast of drug instructions.
According to the person in charge of Ali Health, at present, the platform has covered more than 9,000 Sinopharm quasi-word drugs commonly used by the elderly, and the drug traceability code on the medicine box can be scanned to read the instructions without barriers. At the same time, pharmaceutical manufacturers can also upload electronic instructions through the traceability code background service to implement barrier-free requirements without increasing production costs.
Regardless of age, drug users belong to the category of consumers, and the transformation of drug instructions benefits all consumers. "The transformation of drug inserts is a small incision and a large article, involving the functions of multiple departments, and under the promotion of the Supreme People's Procuratorate and local procuratorial organs, good results have been achieved." Xiang Zicheng, vice president of the China Consumers Association, said that he will actively cooperate with the procuratorate and work together to create a good barrier-free environment, and at the same time, let the elderly and disabled experience more and participate in it.
(Source: Procuratorial Daily · Important News Edition Author: Yan Jingjing)