‘Effective role of pharmacists can help ensure drugs quality, break monopoly of expensive brands’

Model pharmacies must be set up in major hospitals of Sindh as per the directives of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Regrettably, the law to have pharmacists and chemists in hospitals is not being implemented in hospitals throughout the province. 

This was observed by Professor Dr Raheela Najam of the Department of Pharmacology, University of Karachi, on Friday. She was addressing the inaugural session of the three-day Karachi University Annual Pharma Conference 2017 organised by the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, KU.

 “Some ten years ago, very few people in Pakistan thought of pharmacy as being a profession,” she said, adding that people had eventually become more aware of the extremely important role that pharmacy played in the field of medicine. “This realisation has helped pharmacy being recognised as a legitimate profession.”

She said a pharmacist was the only authorised person by the law to manage a hospital’s medicinal budget besides ensuring availability of quality assured medicines.

“There is a dire need to establish a Drug Evaluation Committee – under the supervision of pharmaceutical experts – to ensure quality assurance and regulate medicine brands. Hospitals must follow the guidelines established by the World Health Organisation, which call for hiring one pharmacist for every 50 beds and establishing a pharmacy and therapeutics committee to ensure that drugs are included in the hospital formulary on the basis of generic names, instead of brand names.”

Dr Iyad Naeem, faculty student advisor and associate professor at the Department of pharmaceutics, KU, said pharmacists could ensure safe usage of medicines in the hospitals.

“The developed nations have brought reforms in their health sector as the significance of medicines has increased to a great extent. The role of pharmacists in the developed counties is very broad as they also identify side effects of medicines.”

According to him, the people of Pakistan have, from time to time, had to heal with the issue of substandard drugs being supplied to local hospitals. “Such practices are a direct result of the hospital administration neglecting – both the necessary skills and the proper role of a pharmacist by leaving them out of the decision-making process for the procurement of medicines.

“Society has been facing many problems, including lack of a proper health care system. Doctors are advising costly medicines of those companies which are providing them facilities. Services of pharmacists are essential to assess quality of medicines, to create awareness among patients about drugs and proper sale of medicines at medical stores.”