Maharashtra State Pharmacy Council (MSPC) has issued a notice to an ESIC hospital in the state to comply with Section 42 of the pharmacy act within 30 days. Action comes in the wake of MSPC's drive to track unqualified persons dispensing medicines in hospital premises. Non-compliance within the stipulated time can lead to prosecution based on the cognizance taken by the Executive Committee of the council.

According to an MSPC official, the notice served is to curb the practice of dispensing medicines through unregistered people in violation of Section 42 of the Pharmacy Act, 1948. The notice served to the hospital located at Ulhasnagar is the latest in the series of around 700 notices served earlier to the doctors of government hospitals and private clinics with the aim of making them comply with the law in the interest of patient safety. According to an expert, exemption under section 42 of the Act is most often misunderstood by doctors and they in turn delegate the job of dispensing and compounding medicines to unqualified people who are also not registered with the council.  

As per Section 42 of the Pharmacy Act, 1948 no person other than a registered pharmacist shall compound, prepare, mix, or dispense any medicine on the prescription of a medical practitioner. Provided that this sub-section shall not apply to the dispensing by a medical practitioner of medicine for his own patients, or with the general or special sanction of the State government, for the patients of another medical practitioner. Violation of the provisions of the section shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months, or with fine not exceeding one thousand rupees or with both.  

An MSPC official informs that our notices and inspections have bore fruit as doctors have started complying with the law over the past ten years. Till date, six doctors have faced convictions. Five out of six doctors have pleaded guilty except in one case, the offending doctor has been convicted by the Aurangabad bench of Bombay High Court for endangering patient safety in violation of Pharmacy Act, 1948.

MSPC officials said that the offending doctor in the case was convicted of being an abettor which implies hiring unqualified person as a pharmacist in his clinic. The offending Osmanabad based medical practitioner got acquitted by the Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC), Osmanabad but was later on convicted by the Aurangabad bench of Bombay High Court based on a fresh appeal filed by MSPC against the JMFC verdict as per the provisions of the Pharmacy Act, 1948.