Pakistan is a small and dense country continuously facing the extraordinary burden of health problems. To reduce the chances of illness, the quick ailment health system of Pakistan must be reconstituted.
The health system has to look up the role of the pharmacist (PharmD), which means expertise in medicine formulation, dose calculation and patient counselling.
In Pakistan, most of the pharmacies and medical stores are running without a pharmacist and unqualified persons who even don’t know about generic names and can’t provide alternate brand in an emergency, causing the patient to suffer a lot.
The government should take immediate actions to improve the health system with increased positions for drug inspectors and to check if medical stores and pharmacies have licensed pharmacists for better health care so that the country’s health system can compete with the other developed countries.
Abroad, pharmacists are independent prescribers. It is reported by the CDC that most of the economy of the USA is in the hands of pharmacists. They have been successful in treating chronic diseases and management.
Importantly pharmacists play a role preventing harm from medications by counselling patients on the potential for misuse, abuse and using prescription drug monitoring programs to alert prescribers to cases of excessive use, abuse and potentially dangerous drug combination.
ABDUL RAUF HAKRO,
Larkana.