Pharmacy institutional heads and experts in education do not agree on whether the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) or the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) should control the doctoral pharmacy programme, Pharm D. Although all of them continue to be divided over the issue even when the AICTE has brought the programme under its purview, everyone is of the opinion that dual control over pharmacy education in India should be abolished.
“Control of pharmacy education in India by two statutory bodies has in fact damaged the growth prospects of the much needed Pharm D programme, so the area of pharmacy education requires urgent attention of the government. All the courses in pharmacy should be brought under one roof, either under PCI or under AICTE”, opined Dr. M. Chandra Sekar, Professor at the College of Pharmacy at University of Findlay in Ohio in USA.
This compartmentalization of pharmacy programmes with two agencies to empower dual control is harmful to both the profession and the patient community whom the qualified pharmacists are supposed to serve. It is irrational and wrong to assume that Pharm D is meant for hospital based clinical pharmacy profession. A pharmacist has to practice clinical pharmacy every time they encounter a patient, whether inside or outside the hospital. I believe all pharmacy education should be controlled by one agency, he said while interacting with Pharmabiz through email.
Same sort of opinion was shared by Dr. Satish B. Bhise, former principal of government college of pharmacy at Karad in Maharashtra and currently working as the managing director of KLK Consultants in Pune.
“Discord between two regulatory agencies has caused enough damage till now. It is high time to decide which agency will regulate pharmacy profession. World-over pharmacy profession is considered as health-related science and WHO has enough guidelines and documents indicating the status of pharmacy profession,” he said.
Dr Basanta Kumar Tosh, professor at Royal College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences at Berhampur in Odisha said that the issue of control of pharmacy education, under which agency, has been well settled in the court of law in favour of the AICTE. As such, Indian Parliament has categorically given the power of control of education (not the profession) to AICTE through the AICTE Act, 1987. Since Pharmacy Act is a pre-constitutional Act, the provisions of AICTE Act shall prevail. PCI should regulate the profession of pharmacy, he commented.
According to Prof D D Santani, former HoD of Department of Pharmacology at L M College of Pharmacy in Ahmadabad, PCI has no provision for any grant for research and contingency grants for the welfare of the pharmacy discipline. AICTE gives significant amount for such purposes.
Dr S S Khadabadi, professor, government college of pharmacy, Amravati in Maharasthra said Pharm D is clinical oriented and hospital attached course and it cannot be a technical one. If pharmacy education comes under AICTE, the students will get grants.
“For the last one decade, PCI was the regulatory body of Pharm D course. It is very strange that a course that deals with medicine and patients was brought under the umbrella of AICTE. This has caused a lot of problems and confusion. Pharm.D is a clinical oriented course and Pharm.D students undergo clinical training in hospitals, essentially deal with patients, which is not at all a mandate for AICTE”, said Dr Sai Kumar Katam, National President, Doctor of Pharmacy Association, India.
Raj Vaidya, convener, IPA education division commented that it is not entirely a right thing to project that Pharm.D is for hospital based clinical pharmacy. In USA and UK pharmacists generally have to undergo additional training of 1 or 2 years before they are absorbed as clinical pharmacists. Most of the Pharm D graduates in USA are going to community pharmacies after completion of their course.
According to Prof Raja Reddy, Principal, Arya College of Pharmacy at Sangareddy in Telengana, Pharm D course is more clinical oriented course, so AICTE should not interfere in it. PCI must regulate the course.
Pharm D is a clinical oriented course. It should not be under AICTE. We demand even B.Pharm and M.Pharm should be out of AICTE. Though some technology is involved in these courses, they are just a part of (20%) the course, according to Prof S Balasubrahmanian, former president of IPGA Madurai branch.
Venkatapathi Raju, Principal of the Avanthi Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Vizianagaram in Andhra Pradesh said all pharmacy courses, whether it is B.Pharm or M.Pharm or Pharm D should come under the Pharmacy Council of India irrespective of technical or non technical or medical aspects.
According to Dr R S Thakur, president of the Federation of Indian Pharmacists Organisations (FIPO), two High Courts in India and the Supreme Court of India have upheld that AICTE Act 1987 is supreme and even without the approval of Pharmacy Council of India, students who pass a course in pharmacy from an institution recognized by AICTE, can register as pharmacists with the state pharmacy councils.