To raise the standard of pharmacy education adopted across the nation, top officials from the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) recently met in Delhi to strategise over issues affecting the growth of the profession. Highly placed source from the Council informed that serious thought is also being given to establish a separate building for the PCI, so as to accommodate the changing and growing infrastructural and technical needs of the Council.

With growing prominence of the body to support the interest of the professional needs, experts strongly feel that it is high time to expand its activities and overall presence across the country. Currently, PCI shares its workspace in the same building as with MCI and NCI.

Specific focus was given on the need to regulate M Pharm courses in colleges as well to ensure uniform delivery of services to the students pertaining to admissions, curriculum and other requisites to suit their future professional requirements.

Currently, M Pharm is not covered or regulated under the PCI, creating an ambiguous and uncertain future for genuine students. Lack of representation and regulation at a proper professional front had led to rampant approval and availability of M Pharm seats at various colleges across the country, in spite of severe dearth of skilled workforce to support this demand.

This many experts believe is affecting the reputation and overall approach towards pharmacy as a professional choice among students. It is understood that colleges allot 100 to 150 seats for a higher degree like M Pharm even when they do not have required infrastructure nor technical or professional skills to address the same.

"The Council is working very hard to change the overall perception and image of pharmacy in the country which revolves around from being just a trade based profession today to a community centric highly appraised healthcare profession in the future. This we plan to do by enhancing the competency and overall performance of the current workforce engaged in pharmacy profession by frequent training and skill upgradation programme," informed Dr Hemant G Koshia, president of Gujarat State Pharmacy Council.

Dr Koshia who is also the commissioner of Gujarat FDCA informed that the meeting also discussed and addressed the doubts of the stakeholders over ambiguity over some provisions of the draft education regulation 2015 which refers to rights of pharmacists prescribing medicines. He informed that it was clarified during the meeting that this draft in no way states that a pharmacist can prescribe medicines.