Pharmacy council of India (PCI) proposed health ministry and stakeholders to include the post of Clinical Pharmacist with qualification, duties and responsibilities in hospital at 107th Central Council meeting held in August 2019. PCI decided to initiate action for amendment of the Pharmacy Practice Regulations, 2015 by incorporating the details of Position Title and job responsibilities in respect of Clinical Pharmacists.
Concept of clinical pharmacy is already established in developed countries like US, Canada, UK etc. and all hospitals and medicinal systems follow these criterias strictly. When India is planning to expand as third largest economy of the world, this may be important and positive step towards indigenous healthcare system.
Pharmacy Practice Regulations (PPR), 2015 already defined the term “Clinical Pharmacist” as pharmacy practitioner under regulation 2(4) (iv), but the details of Title and job responsibilities in respect of Clinical Pharmacist is not included in Appendix-III of PPR 2015 alongwith Pharmacist, Senior Pharmacist, Chief Pharmacist, Community Pharmacist and Drug Information Pharmacist.
Accordingly, the 107th Central Council in its meeting held in August 2019 decided to initiate action for amendment of the Pharmacy Practice Regulations, 2015 by incorporating the details of Position Title and job responsibilities in respect of Clinical Pharmacists also.
PCI said that purpose of this amendments are, to provide patient care that optimizes the use of medication and promotes health, wellness and disease prevention in collaboration with physicians and other health care professionals.
PCI said in amendment that main responsibility of clinical pharmacist will be, "Evaluate all Medicare coverage requirement requests and ensure compliance to all clinical procedure and coordinate with pharmacy and medical staff to perform regular interventions according to present drugs. Perform regular evaluation on all usage and dosage and ensure absence of all reactions and assist all patients with assessment of patient orders and prescription infusion and ensure adherence to all laws and regulations. Gather, maintain and analyze all laboratory data and record all required patient information and make recommendations to change dosage if required. Administer and complete all pharmacy care plans and perform reconciliation of all medication and supervise all sterile mixing processes."
As per PCI, drugs are the lifelines of the health system. The success of the health care system depends on how various factors like patient compliance to the medicines, cost, and supply, rational utilization of resources, minimization of wastages and rational prescribing. Pharmacist is fully involved in carrying out and promoting them, thus contributing to the overall economy of the nation. The pharmacist is directly involved in counseling the patients, advising the prescribers on rational selection of drugs and therefore it has a direct impact on the overall patient care.
And now as per rule, PCI has invited comments on the proposed amendments in the Pharmacy Practice Regulations, 2015
