The Maharashtra State Pharmacy Council (MSPC) wants the government to include patient counselling as a separate subject in pharmacy education as pharmacist play a major role in handling the patients. It wants the government to provide funding for  implementing this so that it will help to raise the image of pharmacy profession in the country.

Vaijnath Eknath Jaguste, vice president, MSPC informed that at present there are 1,18,000 pharmacists in the state who are registered under the Council and are working in government and private organisations. However he pointed out that despite having the degree, the quality of pharmacists is not upto the mark as is the case in developed countries.

He says, “Our only demand had been to ensure that the people who are handling patients should be qualified properly to do so. Apart from having a degree, it is vital that these pharmacists should also be trained and informed about their responsibilities which includes handling patents too.”

He said that in India although pharmacists have degree, very few have practical experience. Pharmacists have a vital role to play in the society and they should not be seen as a technical support only but as one who are capable of offering value added service to the patients.

To improve the quality of work and to change the way of looking at pharmacist the MSPC along with the help of PCI have been conducting 16 day workshop in various colleges in the state  for training the pharmacists on patient counselling. Jaguste says “As of now almost 4000 plus pharmacists have undergone this workshop and are certified for it. We hope that we could train as many pharmacist as possible and make them suitable to do this job more effectively.”

He pointed out that in spite of these initiatives they are not able to reach their goal any faster due to lack of proper funding. “Our main aim is to train and make new generation pharmacists as good as their foreign counterparts but to train them we need funding of at least Rs.37 crore. We hope that the central government or the state government will understand the need and importance of having this in our system and will allot us with the funds and will take required steps,” he added.