The hospital industry has taken a stand against the so-called “Mandatory Narcotics Administration Confirmation Act,” which strengthens the obligation of hospitals and doctors to report medication details to prevent the misuse of narcotic drugs.

The Korea Hospital Association (KHA) argued that checking the patient's medication history every time a prescription is issued is impractical.

The association said Wednesday that it recently submitted an opposition opinion to the partial amendment to the “Narcotics Control Act” introduced by Rep. So Byung-hoon of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK).

Rep. So proposed the bill to amend the Narcotics Control Act, reflecting concerns over the deliberate skipping of the patient’s medication history because there is no obligation to check medication history when issuing a prescription for narcotics and ensure there is no risk of abuse under the current law.

The bill aims to prevent the misuse of medical narcotics by youths and patients and drug addiction and crimes by requiring medical practitioners to check the patient's medication history unless there is an urgent reason.

However, the association has expressed opposition to the idea, noting that requiring a uniform check with a narcotics provider is “over-regulation” due to concerns about "misuse" of the regulation itself.

“Significant prescribing and dispensing of narcotics and psychotropic medications in healthcare settings are conducted daily for therapeutic purposes in emergencies, surgeries, procedures, and hospitalizations under the precise control of physicians,” the association said. “Requiring uniform verification is overregulation.”

It is also impractical to require verification of a patient's medication history for every narcotics prescription, except in cases of urgency or for cancer patients, as proposed, the association added.