Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) is working out a set of measures to facilitate speedy up gradation of the pharmacy education in the country. The PCI has requested the Union health minister to make necessary amendments to the Pharmacy Act to help implement these measures.

One of the major suggestions is to set up National Schools of Pharmacy jointly by PCI and the Pharma Industry as a centre of excellence, which will produce high quality pharmacist workforce tailor-made to suit the requirements of the industry. For this plan, the PCI has already constituted a committee of experts to finalize the action plan.

"The pharmacist is no longer a mere dispenser of drugs but has assumed a more crucial role in medicine management and as overall healthcare programmer. It is, therefore, pertinent to provide the best of knowledge while training him. PCI being a regulatory body for pharmacy education, it has to strengthen and upgrade the pharmacy curriculum," said B Suresh, President of PCI.

Apart from this, to meet the growing requirements of pharmacy practice and to overcome the problems faced by Indian pharmacy graduates in foreign countries, the PCI has approached the Health Ministry for approval to introduce Pharm.D and Pharm.D (Post Baccalaureate) programmes as registrable qualifications.

"In these programmes greater emphasis will be given for clinical pharmacy practice, practice management, drug information and professional communication etc. which are an integral part of any community health care network," said Suresh.

PCI has also initiated a number of measures for updation of knowledge bank of the Indian pharmacists by way of conducting refresher courses in collaboration with State Pharmacy Councils, sourcing of books from Commonwealth Pharmaceutical Association, London and free of cost distribution to pharmacy institutions and State Councils for dissemination of scientific and professional knowledge.

PCI is also trying for sanction of Rs 100 crore from the Planning Commission under the 11th Five Year Plan for important professional activities like continuing education for teachers and working pharmacists, travel grants for exchange programmes between India and Foreign countries, grants to institution for up gradation of infrastructural facilities etc.

For ensuring effective regulation of pharmacy education in the country, some other measures taken by the PCI are periodic national level meeting of its inspectors to update them on inspection process, compilation of teachers directory containing details of teachers working in pharmacy institutions all over the country, revision of application forms to be submitted by pharmacy institutions by introducing more quality parameters to be assessed at the time of inspection etc.

Speaking about the proposed amendments in the Pharmacy act, Suresh said that major amendments sought are essential to make pharmacy education to be regulated by PCI alone to avoid duplication. "If there is dual control then there will be confusion in the pharmacy education realm. Hence we have asked the government to help transfer the control of power over pharmacy education to the PCI. We have also forwarded a note to the Health Ministry for consideration of the "Committee of Secretaries" to solve the dual regulation of pharmacy education by PCI and AICTE," said Suresh.

PCI has also requested that the minimum qualification to be qualified as a registered pharmacist should be a degree in pharmacy and not a Diploma. Besides this, the council has also requested for the introduction of "Pharmacy Practice Regulations" which if introduced will the first of its kind in India.

PCI has also convened a meeting of representatives of Drug Control Departments, Academics, Chemists & Druggist Associations, IPA, IHPA, MCI etc. along with Health Ministry officials. The amendments were appreciated and supported by all the Pharmacy professionals citing the amendments as futuristic and very well envisaged. "We even made a presentation to the Union Health Minister describing the features of amendment of Pharmacy Act," he said.