At a time when the pharmaceutical education and technology have advanced so much, the government of India and the state governments should deliberate upon utilising the maximum potential of the trained and qualified pharmacists so as to prevent the tragic incident like that happened in a government–run health camp in a hospital in Chhattisgarh recently.

In the health camp organised at a government hospital 15 women died after doctors conducted sterilisation surgeries on them.

Citing the incident, a former expert committee member of the directorate general of health services (DGHS), government of India, has pointed out that such occasional tragic incidents can be prevented if the union and the state governments follow the recommendations of Hathi Committee report and the guidelines of Medical Council of India (MCI) in respect of formation of Central Hospital Pharmacies (CHPs) in hospitals attached to medical colleges. The CHPs should be under the supervision of trained and qualified pharmacy graduates who will scrutinise and supervise the medicines, vaccines, surgicals etc used for treatments and surgeries.

Dr. Roop Narayan Gupta, the former DGHS expert committee member, while interacting with Pharmabiz, said the Chhattisgarh incident reveals one fact that no comprehensive supervision was held by trained pharmacists on the medicines and surgical items used for the tubectomy operations. He said the MCI has recommended in the MBBS curriculum about setting up of CHPs under the control of pharmacy graduates in all the medical college hospitals. The recommendation has been published in the website of the Council.

According to him, if a CHP is functioning in hospital, it is the duty of the pharmacists there to monitor the quality assurance of the drugs (QC) dispensed from the hospitals and if there is any improper compliance of Drugs & Cosmetics Act & Rules. This is part of the duties of hospital pharmacies. The CHP activities ensure purchase and supply, manufacture, quality control, distribution and  dispensing of standard drugs in hospitals and also control and minimisation of supply of substandard, adulterated and spurious drugs.

“Quality assurance of drugs in hospitals ensures not only handling of drugs, but also all other related aspects of drugs in a hospital with zero defect. Medicines are highly potent, hence they require special skill to handle them because their proper use saves the lives of human beings by curing their diseases. But on wrong use, wrong storage condition, wrong handling, wrong dilution, wrong dose, wrong administration and wrong dispensing, they may take the life of the patient. This shows the fact that handling of medicines is not merely limited to dispensing of drugs to the patients from a window corner of a hospital,” he said.

Dr Gupta said for the purpose of setting up CHPs, plenty of recommendations were made by various committees such as Hathi Committee, NHRC, Mysore Committee and Lentin Commission. But no due consideration has been given to it so far by any government.

In the present day world, due to the advancement of pharmaceutical education and technology the hospital pharmacy should be taken as a department of a hospital covering distribution (dispensing- indoor & outdoor), procurement, inventory control of drugs, medical devices and surgical items, manufacture and  quality control of drugs, pharmacy services, dissemination of drug information, pharmacovigilance, central sterilisation, nuclear pharmacy, clinical pharmacy etc. under the supervision of a pharmacist. Even the guidelines of good pharmacy practice (GPP) also suggest these activities to be carried out by hospital pharmacies, he told Pharmabiz.