As many as 275 Ayush wings attached with the public health centres (PHCs) under National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) programme in Tamil Nadu are functioning without pharmacists.

Out of the total 475 NRHM Ayush wings, only 200 are having pharmacists and majority of the centres are working without any paramedical staff like pharmacist or nurse. All the doctors are employed on contract basis and the centres are working only on alternate days, said Dr K Rajasekharan, general secretary of NRHM Ayush doctors association.

The UPA government’s flagship programme, NRHM was started in Tamil Nadu in 2009, with a view to provide effective healthcare to the rural population. 300 PHCs were attached with Ayush wings. In 2011, an addition of 175 was also made. Though at that time there were not much of qualified Ayush pharmacists, the number of diploma holders in integrated pharmacies increased in recent years, he said.

Foreseeing the vacancies of pharmacists in Ayush hospitals in the state, the directorate of Indian systems of medicine in Tamil Nadu had started a two year diploma course in integrated pharmacy in the year 2009 and three batches of the course have already come out. Besides, the course is being conducted at the government Siddha Medical College at Palayamkottai in Thirunelveli district from where a batch of 50 Ayush pharmacists is coming out every year. The association of doctors said government could appoint these diploma holders on contract basis to look after the pharmacy operations in the NRHM centres.

“Currently the doctors are doing the work in the pharmacy also. In addition to attending patients, we have to manage dispensing medicines at the pharmacies. Maintaining stock register of drugs procured, keeping consolidated dispensing record and all other paper work are done by the doctors only. Since there are no pharmacists to dispense the drugs, the patients have to wait a lot of time in the hospitals,” Dr Rajasekharan said.

In Tamil Nadu there are 1580 government PHCs, out of which 475 centres have Ayush wings under NRHM. The state government sponsored co-located hospitals of Ayush and allopathy come around 479. The remaining 651 PHCs have no NRHM wing or state ISM units.