HYDERABAD: Ever thought that the man standing behind the counter at a pharmacy, the one who dispenses the drugs prescribed to you by a doctor, is qualified enough for the job that he is doing? He/she can probably be someone who has no educational qualification in pharmacy or someone who is just a Class XII pass out, states a recently published study titled ‘A Survey Based Study for the Assessment of Knowledge and Practice of Community Pharmacy Personnel on Good Pharmacy Practice in Hyderabad, India’. The study, published in the Indian Journal of Pharmacy Practice this month, had surveyed as many as 302 pharmacists across the city. And it surely springs out some shocking figures.
Conducted by Anup Jagarlamudi, associate professor at Department of Clinical Pharmacy Practice at the Pulla Reddy Institute of Pharmacy, the study reports that almost 43 pc of the surveyed pharmacists had degrees in subjects unrelated to pharmacy, 16 pc were twelfth-pass and 4 pc were tenth-pass.
Only the remaining 37 pc of the surveyed pharmacists had relevant educational qualification, a DPharm or higher levels of qualification in pharmacy. Interestingly, Pharmacy Council of India rules mandate only those holding Diploma in Pharmacy as eligible to be pharmacists. Hyderabad has about 6,000 pharmacies.
However, when contacted, Dr Manik Rao, Vice President of Telangana Chemists and Druggists Association and its in-charge for Hyderabad-Secunderabad area, denied such a situation exists. Dr Rao, however, added that some pharmacies, employ persons who do not possess a pharmacy degree but have experience of working in pharmacies, as assistants. But they work under supervision of pharmacists, he added.
Awareness among pharmacists lacks
The study reports that while a pharmacist is expected to counsel a patient or even get back to the doctor if a prescription has combination of drugs which might lead to Drug-Drug (D-D) reactions or ADR, the awareness in this regard among the pharmacists was found to be lacking. Only 13 pc of the surveyed persons knew about ADR and just 5 pc knew about D-D reactions.
Moreover, the study also reports that only about 30 pc pharmacists ever identified any problem associated with prescriptions by doctors, and none of them ever referred back to a physician to raise the problem. The study also found that almost half of the surveyed pharmacists either never or rarely referred to resources to update their knowledge.