The Centre is planning stringent norms to curb the widespread practice of engaging unqualified staff at the pharmacy counters to dispense drugs, and seeking the help of the industry to train the unskilled staff.

The Union Chemicals Ministry has taken a serious note of the matter and may come out with a proposal to put in place a fool-proof mechanism to check the trend. The Ministry has already collected some inputs from the market about the practice and possible impact if more stringent laws are introduced, sources said.

The move also comes in the wake of members of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee attached to the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers, in its recent meeting, expressing serious concern on the issue of untrained people working as pharmacists at the retail counters.

According to the inputs with the Government and as per the preliminary studies, about 90 per cent of the pharmacies in the country have unqualified staff at the counters to dispense medicines. The Centre also received many complaints in this regard from different quarters.

There is a serious problem of getting pharmacists to work at the retail pharmacies numbering about 5.5 lakh across the country. Moreover, the practice prevalent now is registering a pharmacy in the name of a registered pharmacist and the owner, or his relatives including children.

The Ministry is mooting the idea of passing on the responsibility of training the people to the pharma companies through specially designed short-term courses in a bid to help the running of the stores during peak hours.

"Working out a mechanism to correct the practice is in the over-all interest of patient care as people without the requisite knowledge of pharmaceutical products could end up dispensing wrong medicines to the public which could be detrimental to the health of the patients,'' sources said.

On the other hand, it is observed that the country is facing a serious shortfall of drug inspectors to inspect the pharmacies. The present monitoring system has only 50 per cent of the required staff as drug inspectors across the country. The All India Drugs Control Officers' Confederation (AIDCOC), a group representing the drug control officers in the country, has been repeatedly requesting the government to provide them "more hands to help carry out their duty".

A recommendation was also made to Union Government as early as 1991 specifying a need for a total of 3,000 drug inspectors for the drug control machinery in the country, whereas the present strength of less than 1000 inspectors are affecting the running of many state drug control departments.