|
The All India Pharm Ds Association (AIPDA) is of the view that the Pharmacy Education and Pharmacy Practice Regulations, 2026 is a landmark step towards strengthening medication safety, enhancing therapeutic outcomes, and improving the overall quality of healthcare delivery in India.
The new regulations provide a significant boost to the pharmacy profession by reinforcing the vital role of pharmacists in patient care, promoting evidence-based clinical practice, and fostering greater collaboration within multidisciplinary healthcare teams. AIPDA believes these reforms will pave the way for safer, more effective, and patient-centric healthcare services across the country.
The Bill promotes uniform standards in pharmacy education across the country. It strengthens healthcare delivery through accountable pharmacy services, enhancing public trust in the pharmacy profession. On the whole it aligns our country’s pharmacy regulatory framework with the evolving global practices, said Dr Omkar Rajaram Patil, president, All India Pharm Ds Association.
Now we have a comprehensive legislation proposal aimed at modernising, unifying and strengthening the pharmacy education and pharmacy practice across India with patient safety, professional accountability and healthcare system effectiveness as its core objectives, he added.
We were observing that the existing pharmacy regulatory framework was fragmented and resulting in uneven educational standards inadequate professional accountability, limited patient centric pharmacy services and weak enforcement mechanisms. The absence of defines statutory distinction while ensuring coordinated oversight between pharmacy education and pharmacy practice has constrained the profession’s contribution to the healthcare industry, said Dr Patil in his communication note.
But now the Pharmacy Education and Practice Regulations, 2026 seeks to address these gaps by providing a coherent legislative framework with distinct yet coordinated regulatory mechanisms for practice, he noted.
In fact the competency based national education framework covering curriculum standards, faculty qualifications, international infrastructure and mandatory accreditation requirements. The emphasis on hospital pharmacy exposure, clinical pharmacy practice, drug logistics, patient safety, ethics and emergency preparedness is a step in the right direction, said the AIPDA president.
Moreover, supervised internships and linkages to the National Pharmacy Licensure Examination (NPLE) are intended to ensure that only adequately trained and competent graduates enter professional practice, reinforcing the overall quality, accountability, and credibility of the pharmacy profession.
Now the Pharmacy Practice Regulations underlines accountability of pharmacists. It seeks to discourage proxy and unqualified practice, mandates continuing professional development and promotes the integration of institutional PharmaCare. This structured patient-centric pharmacy service framework covering medication therapy management, patient counselling, adherence support, chronic disease management, preventive healthcare services, home based care, tele-pharmacy services and emergency-disaster response support . It further provides for disciplinary mechanisms, defined offenses and proportionate penalties enforcing compliance and pubic protection, said Dr Patil.
On a concluding note, Dr Patil asserted that these mechanisms strengthen the quality of pharmacy education, and prepares pharmacy candidates to deliver safe, effective, and ethical pharmaceutical care. Collectively, they can also contribute to the development of a competent pharmacy workforce capable of meeting the evolving needs of the healthcare system.
|