New Delhi, July 9 (IANS) With the country facing a shortage of qualified health professionals like doctors and nurses, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad Friday suggested that pharmacists could substitute the gap in healthcare.
‘Pharmacists often can substitute the gap as a first poll of call and create the window of connectivity in drug supply, advice on its proper use and become a link between the community and health care,’ Azad said while addressing a national seminar on recent trends in pharmacy education and practice here.
The two-day conference was inaugurated by President Pratibha Patil in the national capital Wednesday.
The minister also urged the pharmacists to serve the rural areas.
‘In most rural communities, the primary issues are of availability of drugs, doctors,’ Azad said.
Stating that India was producing more pharmacists than needed, the minister emphasized on the need of regulating pharma education in the country.
‘The admission capacity of these (pharmaceutical) courses is about 61,000 seats. We may therefore feel that we are producing pharmacy professional in far excess to our needs.
‘Consequently, there is significant variation in the outcome of these institutions, that is, the quality of education and training provided to these students,’ he said.
The minister added that the health ministry and the pharmaceutical council were making efforts to ensure the standards regulating the courses and curriculum and starting new programmes of education in pharmacy.
