The Kerala State Pharmacy Council (KSPC) is all set to enforce the Section 42 of the Pharmacy Act, 1948 by ensuring services of a pharmacist in each pharmacy outlet in the state. With this objective, the council is planning to launch a registration renewal and survey campaign within next two months.
The council has already compiled details of community pharmacists from 8 out of 14 districts with the support of the private and government pharmacists associations in the state. The campaign, to compile details of practicing pharmacists in the state, is expected to complete in the next two months, according to KSPC officials. With the support of the data compiled through the campaign the council will invoke Section 42 of the Pharmacy Act which awards a punishment of imprisonment up to 6 months or fine for the unauthorised dispensation of medicine, by November 2008.
The campaign will also help the council to monitor the drug dispensing system in nursing homes and clinics which comes as violation of Section 42 of the Pharmacy Act. The renewal programme, commenced in March 2008 has enabled the Council to compile details of the retail pharmacists in the northern districts of Kerala including Kasargode, Kannure, Vayanad, Kozhikkode, Malappuram, Palakkad and Trissur.
"So far in the programme, we have identified that many of the pharmacy outlets offers the services of a registered pharmacist for limited hours. The pharmacists will be available in these outlets for eight hours in the day time, but the outlets are working without the services of a registered pharmacist for the rest of the hours. We will insist that the outlets should be closed for the hours when the pharmacist is not available. Otherwise the owner should appoint more qualified pharmacists to carry on the operations in a shift basis," said K C Ajith Kumar, president, KSPC. The council has cancelled the registration of four pharmacists and suspended the registration of less than a dozen pharmacists since the commencement of the campaign. The campaign is carried out with the support of the two factions of Kerala State Private Pharmacists' Association (KSPPA) and the Kerala Government Pharmacists' Association (KGPA).
The council has also initiated awareness programmes among its members to ensure better pharmacy practices in retail outlets throughout the state. The Council has mandated that the pharmacists, at the time of registration, should take the Pharmacists' Oath and should attend practical training classes to underline the importance of disseminating drug information at the time of dispensing. The training sessions will emphasise the need of keeping better storage practices and the importance of proper billing, according to the training guidances prepared by the Practical Training Guidelines Committee under KSPC. The council is also modernising its office and website to offer faster registration and monitoring process for its members.
"All our efforts are to make the services of qualified pharmacists manadatory in every single pharmacy outlets in the state. KSPC will ensure that there will not be any violation of section 42 of Pharmacy Act in the state. We are also computerising our office to keep every documents update. With this, we would be able to monitor the professional activities of each registered pharmacists in KSPC. Thus we can also ensure that no pharmacist is working in more than one institution or retail outlet at a time," added Ajith.
The council will also publish all the data collected through the campaign in its newly launched website and will offer personal pages for each registered pharmacist to keep their professional documents readily available online. The computerisation programme, with an allocated budget of Rs 8 lakh, is in the final stage of implementation. The council expects to complete the project of ensuring strict implementation of section 42 within next three years, he averred.
The council has been monitoring the pharmacy practices and the violation of Section 42 in pharmacy outlets in the state through its inspection system commenced 12 years ago with inspectors for three regions. Currently, there are seven part-time pharmacy inspectors offering services to two districts each, under pharmacy council. The pharmacy inspection with a team of inspectors, is to inspect whether the pharmacists abide the job ethics, to monitor the duties like rendering of pharmaceutical services to the patients, according to the laws are executed promptly and to submit reports to State Pharmacy Council on the complaints against its member pharmacists.