WANG HUI-PO: In the fight against SARS, the Department of Health Bureau of Pharmaceutical Affairs takes responsibility for drug-supply logistics. Perhaps when thinking of drugs, most people only consider the question of what diseases they can cure. It is our profession mission, however, to also examine factors underlying the use of drugs and to identify potential associated problems.
王惠珀：對抗SARS疫情，衛生署藥政處負責的是藥物後勤補給的部分。一般人看待藥物，可能只想到它可以治什麼病，可是我們專業還會考慮到，藥物使用的背後，還潛藏那些其他的問題。
What cultural problems are there in association with the SARS epidemic? With everyone busy treating SARS patients these days, has anyone given thought to the many more ill people who resultantly have no place to go for treatment? We’re urging the public to stay away from hospitals if they don’t have major illnesses, but NTU Hospital routinely treats at least 5,000 patients a day, and these people of course won’t stop suffering from their illnesses because of SARS troubles. If some patients are to be given a 3-month supply of prescription medication, does our Bureau of Pharmaceutical Affairs have a drug supply sufficient to meet this emergency situation? Further, if it’s impossible for patients to get 3 months’ worth of medication all at once, do we have some system for dealing with this, as for example by getting medicine to them through pharmacists at local drugstores? Will any problems be encountered if drugs are delivered to pharmacies via the postal service?
SARS疫情的背後，有那些文化上的問題？今天大家忙著治療SARS，有沒有人想過還有更多病人面臨無處就診的困境？我們呼籲民眾沒有大毛病不要到大醫 院，可是臺大醫院每天至少有五千個病人就診，這些人當然不會因為SARS，病痛就沒有了。如果有些病人拿了處方領三個月的藥，我們藥政處是不是有充足的藥 品來因應這次的緊急狀況？再者，如果病人無法一次領三個月的藥，我們有沒有一個制度，譬如透過地方藥局的藥師，把藥交到患者手上？郵寄藥品到藥局的過程會 不會出問題？
 It would be best if patients could get their prescriptions filled at local pharmacies, but for a long time standing people have been in the habit of going to large hospitals whenever they feel a little discomfort [and get prescriptions filled on the spot]; and there’s no well established mechanism for expanding local pharmacies’ prescription-filling capacities. All of these culture-related problems have become particularly evident as the result of the SARS epidemic outbreak.
 如果病人可以拿處方籤到社區去找藥局配藥，這是最好的方式，但是長久以來，民眾身體稍有不適，就到大醫院就診，社區藥局藥品補給的機制也沒有充分建立。這整個文化的問題，在此次SARS疫情的爆發特別被突顯出來。 Although SARS is a troubling development, we have no good cause to look at it pessimistically. We should look at it as a turning point — as an opportunity enabling us to enhance the value of local communities’ roles. In rural locales of some Western countries, [there are community-support networks] consisting primarily of a pastor, a small medical clinic or pharmacy, plus a grocery store, with the pastor providing spiritual guidance, the pharmacy providing drugs not commonly kept in homes, and everyone leading a simple life, without feeling impelled to pay much heed to large-scale national affairs day in and day out. This cultural pattern has been going on in many Western countries for four or five centuries now. It’s not like our people, who get sucked up into the vortex of commotion generated by media reports concerning legislators, political parties and major national affairs. Frankly, I myself am fed up with this sort of life. I hope that as a consequence of this SARS crisis, the public will be moved to fully take advantage of their own community health care resources. Community physicians and pharmacists likewise have the ability to take good care of community residents, and together they can create what, for Taiwan’s people, will be a new community-life culture.