The Pharmacy Council of India's president Dr. B. Suresh has once again announced recently that PCI is going to start a 2-year condensed course for working diploma pharmacists. He told that the proposed course will be named as Bachelor of Pharmacy Practice [BPP] and it will be conducted in evening colleges and/or during week ends from coming academic year. This will upgrade all the existing diploma holders into graduates in due course of time and soon degree in pharmacy will be the minimum qualification to register with pharmacy council, he said.

Demand through Pharmabiz
The above announcement is what we demanded via ‘Pharmabiz’ continuously for the last few years by publishing many articles by this author. In the first article published five years back, in December 2009 [Passing clouds or warning signals? - IPC special issue] we first put forth the demand before PCI to help upgrade D. Pharm holders to Degree holders by offering concessions. When PCI accepted it and announced a 2-year condensed course of B. Pharm for working pharmacists in 2010, we welcomed it by another article [Well done PCI, Keep it up! - Pharmabiz, 14. 4. 2010]. But in the same article we suggested to rename the proposed course either as Bachelor of Pharmacy Practice [BPP] or Bachelor of Clinical Pharmacy [BC Pharm] or Bachelor of Hospital Pharmacy [BH Pharm] as already a B. Pharm course is available and to avoid future problems and confusions. AICTE and Pay Commissions may create problems we warned.

U-turn
But till 2012 middle, PCI’s deeds did not follow its sweet words. We pointed out and again elaborated the need for upgradation in yet another article, while replying to a backward demand of downgrading qualification for admission to D. Pharm to 10th standard. [Is it beginning or end?’- Pharmabiz 10. 5. 2012]. Alas, after vacillating for 2-year, by the end of 2012, PCI made a U-turn and announced it is going to revise the syllabus of diploma course and thereby indicating PCI is not for upgradation of the profession in the near future. We immediately condemned it in our fourth article, 'Is it this innovation and globalization you expected?' [Pharmabiz, IPC special issue, Dec 2012]. Here too we once again emphasized the need for condensed course and upgradation of profession. Finally after another two years of silence, now at the end of 2014, PCI has once again announced it. Will it stop with announcement? Let us watch!

Pull, push and pressure
Still PCI is short of announcing it officially in its website [till 4th week of Dec 2014] but on the other hand it has announced a new Education Regulation [ER 2014] to revise the D. Pharm syllabus and solicit comments from State governments. So, as of it, at one end PCI is not able to reject the reasonable demand of working pharmacists - the upgradation of themselves and the profession and announced BPP course, at another end it is going to continue D. Pharm with revised syllabus! Why this poles apart proposals? If not D. Pharm is abolished, what immediate purpose the BPP course going to serve we don’t know. Instead of upgradation of the profession outright and elevate the status of pharmacists in India, “a half jumping of well” is being attempted by PCI. We can understand the pull, push and pressure PCI is facing from vested interests in the profession. Nevertheless PCI has to be encouraged and supported at this juncture and its president Dr. B. Suresh should be appreciated, for scoring a century in his first innings by starting Pharm D course and now on the verge of hitting another century by this BPP course, in his second innings too! We are thankful he has accepted our suggestion to rename the condensed course from 'B. Pharm' to ‘BPP’. All these he has achieved against multiple odds.

If implemented, his proposal will ensure some more admissions in all pharmacy colleges in yet another pharmacy course. Thus his double century will bring smile on the faces of hundreds of pharmacy college managements, thousands of their employees and lakhs of pharmacists. We hope the first step PCI has taken now will ultimately lead to stopping of D. Pharm which is yet to be announced.

The background
It was pointed out in our earlier articles how doctors are not respecting D. Pharm pharmacists working in hospitals. When these pharmacists bring to their notice the potential drug-drug interaction or incompatibility in their prescription doctors are not only, not ready to accept it but also scold these bloody subordinates! One must interact with govt hospital pharmacists to understand the humiliation they are facing. They are on many occasions driven away from their professional duty - dispensing - to other works including assisting doctors in post mortem. [Sometimes doctors just start the post mortem, give instructions and go out. Pharmacist has to complete the remaining works, effectively about 90% of post mortem, though they are neither trained in it nor studied in their syllabus]. Non pharmacists are asked to dispense when pharmacists are away on other duties or insufficient in number. They need not accompany doctor on his sub centre visits for dispensing – ‘nurses enough, you be in the PHC to answer callers’ - that is the regular instruction. All these humiliations are due to the absence of a separate ‘Department of Pharmacy services’ with highly qualified [PG, Ph.D] pharmacists in Central and State govts as well as in big hospitals. The poor, isolated, under qualified pharmacists are left without mentors and like orphans in hospitals hence humiliated with out anybody to protest or protect. That is why this demands to upgrade the profession. Hope PCI will not let down the pharmacists!

Dispensable pharmacists
When an entire plan document on healthcare sector prepared by Central government few years back did not have the word ‘pharmacist’ even once, there was lot of depression, disappointment, condemnation and all pharmacists of India felt humiliated. All pharmacists must introspect, why this situation prevails. It is because at present hospital pharmacist’s contribution to healthcare delivery is negligible. As long as a pharmacist remain as a mere dispenser of medicine, his services are considered insignificant. He can be easily replaced by somebody – especially nurses - for dispensing drugs [they will not find fault with prescriptions so doctors need not worry!] Thus not only the drugs even the pharmacists are easily dispensable! If the pharmacists continue to do just dispensing, in the future too they will not get respect, as was the case in the near past and present. Ever since the pharmacist’s main technical work of preparing (compounding) medicines in the dispensary was snatched from him by the Pharma Industry few decades back, he has become a puppet. All these will start changing only when graduate pharmacists are appointed and clinical pharmacy services started in our hospitals.

Whatever may be the PCI’s reason for the present proposal, helpless pharmacists who are silently suffering believe, PCI has at last come forward to rescue them. It should not content with this first step but proceed to reach the goal of best pharmacy services in India on par with global scenario.