95% medical stores run without pharmacists, reveals Dr Noor

F.P. Report

LAHORE: Only five per cent of the country’s 40,000 medical stores have qualified pharmacists while around 15000 qualified pharmacists are jobless and overwhelming number of the medical stores is run by unqualified managers.

This was revealed by renowned pharmacist and chairman Patients Rights Forum Dr Noor told media.

He said that around 2,000 medical stores in Lahore were found running without pharmacists last year, and had sealed around 240 of them during a campaign. He said that around 15,000 pharmacists are unemployed in the country, while 7,000 belonged to Punjab only, whereas most posts of pharmacists were lying vacant even in Lahore hospitals. As per rule, the appointment of a pharmacist is mandatory to get license of a medical store, he added.

He said that around 45 institutions including public and private sectors were working in the country including 28 in Punjab which had been producing around 2,700 pharmacists every year.

He said that a license from the Central Pharmacy Council in Islamabad is required to run an institution, but unfortunately mostly private institutions of pharmacy are working without a license like medical stores.

Despite an order of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, given in 2006 for appointment of pharmacists in hospitals, and the Punjab government orders issued in October 2012 to fill all vacant posts of pharmacists in hospitals, still posts are vacant, he claimed.

The Pakistan Pharmacist Forum leader said that the Pharmacy Department should be set up in every hospital to handle matter of medicines.