E-DRUG: Empowerment of Indian Pharmacists-Pharmacy Auxiliaries (cont.d)
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[This message is in response to Empowerment of pharmacists in India - Neil Pakenham-Walsh: Fri, 12 Aug 2011]
Dear Moderator,
My response to this debate is to query why every person working in the
pharmacy or drug-store with a white-coat on is percieved to be a
"Pharmacist".
In the developing world pharmacy technicians, pharmacist's assistants
and pharmacy auxillaries are trained for 3-24 months to acquire very
basic information needed to assist the pharmacist.
Most times these cadres have experience and skills related to
logistics and warehousing and are therefore useful in basic or primary
healthcare settings, but they have inadequate scientific competency
required to interact as equals with a medical doctor hence "it's not
their place to question the prescription".
My advice to Dr Neil Pakenham-Walsh and other reseachers, colleagues
and interested public is to exercise due diligence before conclusion
that a person behind counter is a pharmacist.thank you
Omojuwa .O,
Gaborone, Botswana
OLUSEGUN OMOJUWA <segun.omoj@gmail.com>
Neil Pakenham-Walsh has responded as follows
"I welcome the message from Olusegun and agree that it is important to recognise that there are different levels of training in pharmacy, including pharmacy technicians, pharmacist's assistants and pharmacy auxillaries, as well as fully-trained professional pharmacists.
The person whom I interviewed described himself as a fully-trained pharmacist and he was working independently. Sadly, he reported that he felt unable to speak up or indeed take action, whenever he saw a dangerous error in a prescription, because he had been told by doctors that "it's not your place to question the prescription". I found this quite shocking as it puts patients in danger. Even if my interviewee had been a pharmacy technician, I would have found it shocking to hear they could not speak up if they identified a dangerous error in the prescription.
"I look forward to further comments on the professional dynamics between different cadres of health professional, and how this may compromise patient safety. Perhaps what I saw was an isolated case. I hope so."
Thanks,
Neil Pakenham-Walsh
neil.pakenham-walsh@ghi-net.org