Starting Feb. 7, doctors will be banned from self-prescribing the sleeping anesthetic propofol. Violators will face up to five years in prison or a fine of up to 50 million won ($34,933).
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) recently informed it of frontline medical institutions through the Korean Hospital Association.
On Feb. 6 last year, the MFDS announced that the Drug Control Act, which was amended to prohibit medical practitioners from prescribing and administering medical narcotics to themselves, will take effect on Feb. 7, 2025. Propofol has been designated as one of the banned substances for self-prescription.
From July to December last year, the MFDS informed medical institutions with a history of self-prescribing narcotics about the prohibition on self-prescribing narcotics and asked them to be careful not to self-prescribe narcotics.
The MFDS also asked medical institutions to cooperate to create a culture of properly using medical narcotics by requesting the computer departments of hospitals and clinics or prescription software developers to develop a computer program that prohibits self-prescription so that self-prescription does not occur in the first place.
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