HEART DRUGS DEATHS: A NEGLIGENCE OF PHARMACIST ROLE IN PAKISTAN

Heart Drugs Deaths: A result of negligence of Pharmacist role in Pakistan.

The deaths of heart patients in Pakistan have exposed the defects in the health system of Pakistan; following are the main reasons for defective Health system.

Negligence of Health system by Federal Government and Parliament.

In past General Zia used to provide moral guidelines to Pakistani nation, once he advised Pakistani nation not to use Ghee as that was dangerous for health of people.

While present president Zardari never have spoken any single words about such subjects while he himself is suffering from heart disease while Zia himself was not suffering from Heart Disease. Infact Zardari and Parliament removed the subject of health from the federal subjects, while even United nations have not done such thing although that is not a government but maintain this subject in the form of very efficient system of WHO (*World health organization).

It is obvious from eighteen amendments that present parliamentarians including opposition have made such decisions without thoroughly examining the issue and made blind decisions, therefore Pakistani nation is paying price of their mistakes.

At present there are very strict regulations for import of drugs in USA, CANADA EU countries, but in Pakistan due to eighteen amendment Drugs act 1976 have become totally irrelevant. All drugs which are used in heart disease are imported from China and India and no drug is manufactured in Pakistan, Local Pharma Industry just formulate and convert the imported drugs into finished dosage form, and due to ambiguity created by eighteen amendments by foolish parliamentarians, Health system due is running without any inspection and monitoring system. Moreover Federal Government have not taken any step for manufacturing of Pharmaceuticals in Pakistan, infact only genuine manufacturing facility of Penicillin Plant in Mianwali established in 1960 have also been destroyed and Pakistani nation is forced to import low quality drugs from Garage based Pharmaceutical Industry in China and India.

Negligence of Role of Pharmacist in Pakistan:

Role of Pharmacist is very important in USA,CANDA,EU and in other parts of world, but in Pakistan to grasp the whole budget the doctors have made their monopoly in hospitals and do not understand the importance of Pharmacist in the hospital whose main responsibility is to understand the use of drugs, their interactions and side effects, as kingdom of drugs is now so much broad it is not simply possible for physicians to master this field, therefore it is their responsibility and duty to demand and take the professional help from Pharmacist in discharging their duties.

From this accident it is clear that When you will appoint non pharmacist and will try to make pharmaceuticals by workers without supervision of pharmacist then you will have to face such music always. Violation of Good manufacturing practices and using non professional and non Pharmacist staff results in such type of accidents, therefore running of Pharmaceuticals Industry by non professional and non pharmacist persons should be discouraged at present MOST OF THE PHARMACEUTICALS OWNERS are businessman such as distributors,and shop keepers, no one can expect care and quality from such peoples, Medicines should not be a business for money making, Therefore Pharmacist should be provided facilities and financial support and loans for running and owning the Pharmaceutical Industries, because only they are educated and qualified for this job.

Moreover importing Drugs from India and China garage based pharmaceuticals is not only harmful for the economy but also dangerous for the health and safety of the nation and measures should be taken to improve growth of Local Pharmaceuticals as well as to promote exports of Pharmaceuticals.Only when we will hand over Pharmaceuticals business to Pharmacist then only we can compete with India or China, otherwise we will continue to kill our peoples.

Laws and regulations about Health should be made by health professional and not by political personalities like Raza Rabani,Ishaq Dar or Zardari or Nawaz Shareef.

Pharmacists and other health professionals and physicians should work to augment and improve their roles for service of humanity and not just for money making.

Akshaya Srikanth, 

Pharm.D Intern

India