KU Annual Pharma Conference Begins

KARACHI, Jan 6 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 06th Jan, 2017 ) : A senior faculty member of the Department of Pharmacology Karachi University, Prof. Dr. Raheela Najam said that Medical profession is a noble profession, which helps mankind to reduce their pain and treat illness.

This is unfortunate that pharmacists are leaving for abroad and quitting the field due to a lack of opportunity. She was addressing the three-day Karachi University Annual Pharma Conference organized by Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Karachi.

She added that Model pharmacies must be setup in major hospitals in different cities of Sindh, as per directives of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Law to have pharmacists and chemists in hospitals is not being implemented in hospitals throughout the province.

She said that some ten years ago, very few people in Pakistani society thought of pharmacy as being a profession. However people have eventually become more aware of the extremely important role that pharmacy plays in the field of medicine, a realization that has helped pharmacy being recognition as a legitimate profession.

A pharmacist is the only person who is authorized by law to manage a hospital's medicinal budget while simultaneously making sure that quality assured medicines are be procured. `There is a dire need to establish a Drug Evaluation Committee which would be composed of pharmaceutical experts who would be responsible for quality assurance and the selection of medicine brands.

Hospitals must follow the guidelines established by the World Health Organization, which means hiring one pharmacist for every 50 beds and establishing a pharmacy and therapeutics committee which would ensure that drugs are being included in the hospital formulary on generic name and not on brand name', she maintained.

Dr. Iyad Naeem, Faculty Students Advisor and associate professor, Department of Pharmaceutics, University of Karachi, said that Pharmacist is the best source for the safe usage of medicines in the hospitals.

Developed nations have brought reforms in their health sector as the significance of medicines has enormously increased. In developed nations, the role of a pharmacist is very broad medicines and also to identify its side effects to the doctors, patients and the concerned persons.

The nation has, from time to time, had to heal with the issue of sub-standard drugs being supplied to local hospitals. Such practices are a direct result of the hospital administration neglecting both the necessary skills and the proper role of a pharmacist by leaving them out of the decision-making process for the procurement of medicines.

`Society has been facing many problems including a lack of proper health care system. Doctors are advising costly medicines to poor patients of those companies which are providing them facilities.

Services of pharmacists are essential to assess quality of medicines, to create awareness among patients about drugs and proper sale of medicines at medical stores', Iyad added. Renowned trainer and motivational speaker Samad Abbas Zaidi took a lively motivational session to the students of faculty of pharmacy.

He urged the students to develop soft skills alongside obtaining a degree because contemporary age is of competition. Leaders don't complain and make ways for their juniors to grow and excel. `Our youth must develop reading culture instead of complaining', Samad Abbas maintained. APP/rak/msk/rn