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In order to educate the pharmacy inspectors in charge of all the districts about judicial process for filing violation cases and also to reinforce the implementation of Section 42 of the Pharmacy Act and the state Rules framed on it, the Kerala State Pharmacy Council (KSPC) is holding orientation course to the pharmacy inspectors.
The course is aimed to give comprehensive training to the inspectors on all the sections of the Pharmacy Act, Pharmacy Practice Regulations (PPR) 2015, judicial process of case filings and the state rules framed by Kerala government for the purpose of enforcing Pharmacy Act. The first level of the course will take place in the last week of this month at the state capital.
The centralized course will also give the pharmacy inspectors a confidence in working as a regulator and take up the job of pharmacy inspection, because this is a part-time job only. The selected inspectors are regular staff in the health department in charge of pharmacies and they know more about the Drugs and Cosmetics Act only. They have to be educated about the legal as well as the judicial process of inspection and filing of cases as per the law, said B. Rajan, president of the council.
Complying with the provisions of the Pharmacy Act and of the Pharmacy Practice Regulations, KSPC had appointed pharmacy inspectors in 13 out of the 14 districts in 2015 itself following the notification of the PPR. The vacant post in Alappuzha district was also filled up in last month and currently all the districts have inspectors to check and enforce section 42 and other essential provisions of the Act.
Rajan said there is a recent court verdict in Kerala for strict implementation of Pharmacy Act. The case was filed in the High Court by a pharmacist group, but later state pharmacy council also joined the case. Following the order, the council took urgent steps for state wide implementation of the Act by filling up the vacant post in one district. Even though KSPC had taken steps to put inspectors into operation in 2015, the state chemists and druggists association (AKCDA) had objected the move of the council and forced the government to stop the council from moving ahead.
AKCDA’s argument was that the trade licence was granted to the traders by the state drug control department for sale of medicines and not for ‘dispensing’. Further, they argued that no dispensing was taking place at medical stores, so the pharmacy inspectors had no right to inspect the medical stores licensed under Drugs & Cosmetics Act and Rules. What is happening at the medical shops is sale of tested and company packed medicines to the customers, the traders argued. Against this, an organisation of a pharmacist group approached the court and obtained a judgment in their favour.
Following the court interference, the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) has also risen into action. PCI sent letters to all state councils to take steps to appoint pharmacy inspectors with prior approval from respective state governments. Besides, the PCI has approached the Union government to advise all the state governments for implementation of Section 42 and Chapters III, IV and V of the Pharmacy Act in every state. Now the process has been started in all the states. It is learnt that the Chhattisgarh state pharmacy council is aggressively taking steps with the government to become the second state in the country with pharmacy inspectors in all the districts.
State pharmacy councils are constituted under Section 19 of the Pharmacy Act 1948 to regulate the profession and practice of pharmacy in the states. The main duty of the pharmacy inspectors is to detect violation of provisions of Pharmacy Act by community pharmacies or in-house pharmacies of government and private hospitals. A state council can take action against the offenders of the Act under Section 36 wherein the executive committee of the state council can give the judgment based on the inspection report.
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