Pharmacist Criminal Liability for Ensuring Safe Pharmaceutical Services: A Critical Analysis of Indonesia's Omnibus Health Law Number 17 of 2023 from a Comparative Perspective

Abstract

The enactment of Indonesia's Law Number 17 of 2023 on Health represents a significant legislative reform, consolidating and replacing multiple sectoral laws. Within this new framework, the criminal liability of pharmacists for failures in pharmaceutical service delivery remains a critical yet underexplored issue. This article investigates the extent to which the 2023 Health Law establishes a robust legal framework for holding pharmacists criminally accountable, particularly when their absence or negligence compromises patient safety and public health. Employing a normative juridical methodology with statutory, conceptual, and comparative approaches, this study analyzes primary legal materials including the Health Law, the Indonesian Criminal Code (KUHP), and relevant implementing regulations, alongside secondary legal scholarship. The research identifies a fundamental legal lacuna: while the 2023 Law criminalizes the practice of pharmacy by unauthorized persons (non-pharmacists), it fails to provide explicit criminal sanctions for the managing pharmacist who abandons their duties, thereby creating the conditions for such illegal practice. This regulatory gap undermines legal certainty, weakens patient protection, and contradicts the principle of proportionality in criminal law. The findings are critically compared with regulatory frameworks in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Singapore, which adopt more explicit models of vicarious and direct criminal liability for pharmacist supervisors. The article concludes that the current Indonesian framework provides insufficient deterrence against pharmacist absenteeism, compromising the quality of pharmaceutical care and endangering patients. It offers concrete recommendations for legal reform, including the introduction of specific criminal provisions targeting dereliction of duty by pharmacists, strengthening of supervisory mechanisms, and enhancement of the professional regulatory body's enforcement powers to ensure both legal certainty and robust public health protection.

Keywords

Pharmacist Criminal Liability; Pharmaceutical Services; Health Law Number 17 of 2023; Patient Protection; Legal Certainty; Comparative Health Law; Indonesian Health Law Reform; Professional Negligence