Udyog Development Foundation (UDF), a not-for profit organisation and the face behind the national the Indian Pharmacists Revolution Yatra from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, has demanded that the state government should fill up all the vacant posts of pharmacists for various projects coming under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), apart from appointing them at Primary Health Centres (PHCs), Community Health Centres (CHCs), district hospitals and medical college hospitals.

According to UDF, the Union and state governments would now need to create the posts of pharmacist in each hospital as per population size. It could also base the same on the outpatient and inpatient ratio in each government healthcare facility.

The government should mandate creation of departments of Pharmacare which would cover logistic pharmacy and clinical pharmacy at all the hospitals having a minimum strength of 300-beds. The move would be able to ensure that pharmacists passing out of colleges will have job opportunities.

There are several qualified pharmacists who are still unemployed. This is because science graduates and post graduates are seen to take up jobs in pharma industry. Now if the government sets up dedicated pharma departments in hospitals and related healthcare centres then these qualified pharmacists could have a promising start in their career, said Amitav Joyprakash Choudhury, founder, UDF and convener-IPR Yatra.

Specific for Karnataka, UDF now calls for Immediate establishment of Drug Information Centre & Pharmacovigilance Centre for the public to easily get have access to information on Adverse Drug Reaction (ADR), rational use of medicines, drug interaction, side effects and toxicity issues. This would be of immense help to patients from government hospitals and primary health centres, he said.

Further, there should also be a strict implementation of the Drugs and Magic Remedies Act at all pharmacy outlets.

Now the Indian Pharmacists Revolution Yatra traversing from Kashmir to Kanyakumari was launched on January 4, 2013 by Udyog Development Foundation, New Delhi only to ensure that pharmacy profession gets its due recognition. The Yatra which  is already completed in the states of Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Himachal, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal, Sikkim, Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka is now in Tamil Nadu and is expected to culminate in Kanyakumari on December 31,2013.

“Our main intention was to create awareness on the pharmacists presence in healthcare. The role of the qualified pharma professionals right through community pharmacy in the healthcare, industry-related job openings like manufacturing, research and marketing of pharmaceuticals. The other objective was to highlight the importance of professional ethics and responsibility of the pharmacists towards the society. Only the IPR Yatra which spanned for a year is now seen to realize its objective to strengthen the unity among the pharma professionals across diploma holders, graduates, post graduates and Doctor of Pharmacy,” said Choudhury.