Indian Pharmaceutical Association (IPA) has called upon all the stakeholders from across the country to join hands with them in their efforts to put community pharmacy at the forefront of healthcare delivery system. The association stressed that it is high time to remodel the pharmacy profession in the country to encompass community pharmacy as a major part of it, with a view to meet the growing demands of the changing role of the healthcare needs globally.

With a view to strengthen the role of community pharmacy in the country, IPA have been taking many proactive steps aimed at helping and representing the cause of this profession more aptly. On this note IPA have already prepared a unique guideline for the benefit of this segment called good pharmacy practices (GPP) that highlights all the basic requirement needed for promoting community pharmacy in the country. GPP has been prepared by the IPA after through research and study on the different aspects of community pharmacy making it India centric at the same time to train and adopt it all over the country.

Manjiri Gharat, vice-president and chairperson, Indian Pharmaceutical Association-Community Pharmacy Division (IPA CPD) stressed that it is he need of the hour to focus on developing this segment as per latest trends and the changing demands of the healthcare needs. “As of today community pharmacy is practised only by very few pharmacists across the country. Which needs to change so as to ensure healthy environment that  will recognise and ensure a wider and more important role to the pharmacists as a counsellor to patients apart from being just a dispenser of medicines. To make this into a reality, we need a clear vision and a detailed and universally accepted white paper on the modalities of the same.”

Gharat who was also recently elected as an executive committee member of community pharmacy section of  International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) further stressed that this initiative will need active support from all the stakeholders to make it a success. She further pointed out that apart from the support from the stakeholders the government should also take active interest in supporting these initiatives like they did for the TB programme and ensure enacting GPP as a regulatory requirement to promote community pharmacy.