The Pharmaceutical Society of Kerala (PSK), a subsidiary of Kerala State Pharmacy Council (KSPC), will soon start retail pharmacy outlets in the Taluk hospitals of Kerala. In the first phase, there will be two pharmacies which will be extended to all the 54 Taluk hospitals in the state.

The society has already held talks with various Taluk hospitals to open retail pharmacies and most of them are willing to allot space for the same. But the formal permission is yet to get from the government. The name and emblem of the pharmacies are yet to be decided.

"We have not decided upon the name or the emblem as of now, but it would have the name of PSK on it. We are yet to receive the formal nod from the administration wing of various Taluk hospitals," KSPC president K M Ishac said.

To begin with, the PSK has decided to open retail pharmacy outlets in two Taluk hospitals within next few months with an investment of Rs 45 lakh.
There are around 54 Taluk hospitals in Kerala.

"The patients will get medicines at a reasonable rate through these outlets. We will only be pricing the medicines a little more than the purchase cost and the price would be same in all our outlets," said secretary of PSK, K C Ajit Kumar.

He said the pharmacy outlets would also give medicines to the hospitals on a loan basis and the hospitals could pay the amount for the medicines once they get the funds from the government.

"In the current scenario the hospitals are purchasing the medicines just to utilize the funds, but when a calamity occurs there are no essential medicines available. So we have chalked out a plan wherein the hospitals can take the required quantity of medicine from us in case of emergency and pay the amount when they get the funds," he said.