Private pharmacists in the State are planning to step up their campaign against the proposed amendment to the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945, with just a day left for filing objections and suggestions about it.
The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has proposed to allow community health officers, nurses, auxiliary nurse midwives, and lady health visitors attached to primary health centres, sub-centres, and health and wellness centres in rural and urban areas to store and dispense medicines without a pharmacist’s licence through a gazette notification issued on November 6.
Community health volunteers such as Accredited Social Health Activists and anganwadi workers too have been included within its ambit. Serial number 23 in Schedule K of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules is proposed to be amended for the purpose. Suggestions and objections will have to be given within 45 days of issuing the notification.
In a letter sent to the Ministry, functionaries of the Kerala Private Pharmacists’ Association (KPPA) pointed out that serial number 23 contradicted Section 42 of the Pharmacy Act, 1948, which says that “no person other than a registered pharmacist shall compound, prepare, mix or dispense any medicine on the prescription of a medical practitioner”. They urged the Centre to scrap the section as it only led to “ irrational dispensing” of medicines by unqualified persons.
“Medicines are not to be treated as commodities that can be bought from a provisional store. These are chemical substances that have specific use when given in proper dosage. It may become fatal to humans if given in the wrong dosage or to a wrong person,” they pointed out. The KPPA is involving all the MPs from the State in the campaign and a signature campaign among the people has been launched. Galileo George, member of the Kerala State Pharmacy Council, and a former general secretary of KPPA, told The Hindu that the Centre’s rationale behind the amendment seemed to be a shortage of pharmacists. “That sounds like a lame excuse. For example, 70,000 pharmacists have registered with the council in Kerala. There are 51 pharmacy colleges and close to 500 people pass the course every year,” he said.