Over 90% of medical stores lack essential pharmacist oversight in Pakistan

KARACHI: An alarming revelation was made about the risk to public health as 95% of pharmacies, medical stores, and half of the hospitals in the country were operating without qualified pharmacists.

The disclosure was made during the Medication Safety Conference in Karachi where various experts and industry professionals underscored the key issue plaguing the country’s health sector.

Speaking on the occasion, Chief Executive Officer of the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (Drap), Asim Rauf, said the necessary technical expertise possessed by qualified pharmacists.

“Doctors are not trained to identify medication errors, whereas pharmacists are equipped to prevent harm from drug misuse,” he said, adding: “No hospital or pharmacy should run without pharmacists, and we are working to ensure safer medication practices in line with the World health Organisation (WHO) recommendations.”

The official further also urged healthcare professionals to report adverse drug reactions to strengthen pharmacovigilance systems and prevent unexplained deaths linked to medication errors.

Addressing the event, Alkhidmat Pharmacy Services Director Jamshed Ahmed, while lamenting the condition of pharmacies in the country, said: “The remaining 95% [pharmacies] are operated like grocery stores by untrained staff who often dispense the wrong medicines, leading to fatal outcomes”.

Pointing out the issue posed by errors due to handwritten prescriptions by doctors, former director of Pharmacy Services at Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH), Abdul Latif Shaikh remarked that untrained staff dispensing unrecognisable prescriptions results in wrong medications being given to patients which leads to fatalities.

He also highlighted the importance of safe raw materials for drug manufacturing and encouraged error reporting without fear of prosecution to improve patient safety.

Decrying that a large number of pharmacists leave the profession due to various reasons, Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PPMA) representative Shaikh Kaiser Waheed urged the parents to encourage their children to contribute towards the profession.

With the conference featuring senior physicians including Professor Abdul Malik and Dr Azeemuddin who discussed the importance of involving pharmacists in improving patient outcomes, the participants called for mandatory staffing of pharmacies and hospitals with trained pharmacists is critical to reducing medication errors and saving lives.

Proposing introducing a one-year paid internship program for pharmacists to provide hands-on training, Alkhidmat’s Director of Medical Services, Dr Saqib Ansari said that pharmacists have proven to reduce mortality rates in hospitals by assisting doctors.