Federation of Chemists and Druggists in Karnataka has sent in a proposal to the state government to take action on the quacks practising in the state and also look into the norms at the time of granting pharmacy outlets licenses across the state.
In a memorandum to the minister of health and family welfare, Ashokswamy Heroor, vice president of the Federation of Chemists and Druggists in Karnataka stated that there are 81,000 registered MBBS doctors, 12,000 ayurveda qualified practitioners and 4,500 homoeopathy specialists in Karnataka. But the number of quacks practising are more than qualified medical professionals. Therefore a serious action is mandated against those treating patients with non-medical qualifications.
The government should look at auditing the clinics even in the remote locations of the state to ascertain the number of doctors practising without medical degrees.
In order to curb the practice of quackery, the Supreme Court had passed a judgement on October 8, 1998, to identify the quack doctors. As per the order, Director of Health and Family Welfare department had issued a circular No. MDL, 14:2000-01 dated November 4, 2000. Karnataka government passed a notification No. HFW215/PIM-2007 dated December 13, 2007 to control the quack doctors to register Ayurveda Board, District Ayush officers and District Family welfare officers.
According to Heroor, despite these government orders to swoop down clinics and arrest the violators, not much could be achieved to control the practising of quacks.
He called upon the state government to increase the number of officers which would help empower committees in drugs control department covering designation of drugs inspectors assistant drug controller and deputy drug controllers.
Another issue is the proliferation of unsafe and ineffective medical devices in the market which are increasing the threat of infection transmission. Further, there is also inappropriate prescription and irrational use of drugs resulting in drug resistance and adverse drug reaction which the state government needs to address as these issues are impacting as a huge economic burden on the patient population, pointed out Heroor.
With reference to the pharmacy trade, he has proposed to the state drugs control department, there was need to ensure that permanent addresses of the registered pharmacists made available.
Even during the election process at the State Pharmacy Council, ballot papers were misused and addresses were not updated. Heroor stated that there needs to be a permanent residence proof records like voter ID or other government approved submissions for the same.
According to the vice president of the Federation of Chemists and Druggists in Karnataka, who is also the president of the Koppal District Chemists and Druggists Association and president Indian Pharmaceutical Association, Gangavati, stringent norms and constant surprise checks would help to keep quacks at bay. A regular vigil on hospital practices would help control unethical tasks, he added.
Source:Pharmabiz
No comments:
Post a Comment