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The Karnataka Registered Pharmacists Association (KRPA) has demanded to the state government to cover all the community, retail and hospital pharmacists, manning the 30,000 outlets across 30 districts in the state, under the ambit of the health insurance cover on similar lines that was extended to healthcare workers who are engaged in diagnosing and treating the COVID-19 patients. In this regard, the Association has recently submitted its representation to the state drugs controller who will forward it to the government.
Pharmacists are also frontline warriors in this COVID-19 phase. They work over 12 hours or more to dispense prescribed drugs round-the-clock and have also taken up door delivery service of medicines to scores of consumers during this ongoing lockdown, stated KPRA adding that the pharmacy profession is also key to the healthcare milieu as drugs prescribed by doctors for COVID-19 and other disorders are dispensed by pharmacists.
The Association noted that the government should issue related circulars for a health insurance of Rs. 15 lakhs for the pharmacists which was also provided to medical professionals. This would save the pharmacist community in case they are diagnosed with COVID-19.
There is an urgent need for pharmacists to be tested for COVID-19 by the state government. This is because pharmacists donning masks and maintaining social distancing are dispensing drugs based on valid prescriptions to customers across the counter who could be possible carriers of the virus, noted KRPA.
A recent state government order mandated that all pharmacy outlets need to provide details of customers purchasing antipyretics, anti-analgesics, antihistamines and cough syrups to the respective district health officers or rural medical chiefs on a daily basis. “Our pharmacists are unable to provide details of the drug list on their computer systems when customers come to purchase. This is primarily owing to the paucity of time, poor internet connectivity and power interruptions in many parts of the state,” said Kaushik Devaraju, president, KRPA.
The hassle is that we have a serious shortage of pharmacists manning counters from the regular four it is two people in many parts of the state and at times only one person is at the counter dispensing drugs. In order to adhere to the government circular and KRPA has requested to permit pharmacists pen down the details on paper and submit to the district/area health officers, said Devaraju.
At a recently concluded webinar on ‘Best community pharmacy practices’, Sunil Chiplunkar, advisory member, KRPA, highlighted the precautions for community pharmacists right from leaving home to the shop, at the counter, handling stockist sales personnel delivering medicines and on the need to counsel their customers.
Karnataka drugs controller BT Khanapure, recognized the role of pharmacists and their contribution to timely drug dispensing to treat COVID-19 and other patients. “The challenges faced by the pharmacists during the pandemic cannot be ignored.”
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