The national professional body of the hospital pharmacists, Indian Hospital Pharmacists Association (IHPA), wanted government of India to start regular refresher training courses for the hospital pharmacists through National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) to update the knowledge and fine tune the experiences of the working pharmacists.

While speaking to Pharmabiz, R A Gupta, the national vice-president of the association said IHPA has already approached the union government with the demand and further it will raise the same once a new government is in power after the general election.

“Refresher training courses would help the pharmacists build up confidence and decision making capacity in them while dealing with emergency cases. To keep up to the professional expectations, the pharmacists need to undergo refresher courses and learn about new drugs and the developments in pharmacy practices. We will also put suggestion before the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) to initiate this kind of training courses for the pharmacists working in government and in private sectors, and also for those in community pharmacies”, he added.

For strengthening the health mission activities of NRHM, Gupta pointed out that  qualified pharmacists should be part of all the projects of the Mission. He made one demand that considering the strength of the association, a member from IHPA should be nominated into the pharmacy council of India and such representations should be there in all the state councils. IHPA has units in all the states in India and has membership strength of over 5000 working pharmacists.

The IHPA leader, who belongs to Uttar Pradesh, said the state branch of the IHPA has demanded the government of UP to establish a state pharmacy institute in Lucknow under the ministry of technical education associating with medical education department. This will help for the academic and industry sectors for human resources service. The manufacturing industry, R&D, academic institutions and health institutions can avail the services of qualified pharmacy graduates and post graduates.

The association’s national meeting held in Lucknow in last month wanted the state government to amend the UP Pharmacists Service Rules 1980 in order to bring in a law that graduation in pharmacy (B Pharm) should be the basic qualification for pharmacists in the government sector. The meeting also wanted the government to make the director general of state health services as the appointing authority for pharmacists.

He further added that the government of Uttarakhand on 31st December last year revised the pay scale of pharmacists working in various departments and such pay revision is also sought by IHPA in Uttar Pradesh through a memorandum.