E-drug: Helsinki declaration (cont)
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Dear Readers,
In continuance with the discussion on the Helsinki declaration, I
would like to bring out the situation as follows:
In a developing country as India, Rural health workers, Nurses and
paramedics are allotted work in certain sectors for example in
expectant mothers to monitor and dispense Folic acid/Iron tablets.
Also Family planning is undertaken by Health care professionals other
than doctors, who undergo specific training in the field. This would
include education on Contraceptive devices and Non-steroidal oral
contraceptives and also dispensing of the same.
These services does not include diagnosis of concomitant diseases,
which according to me as a pharmacist is in the Preview of a
Physician.
Professionally it is very difficult to demarcate Serious and Non
serious conditions, but in endemic areas it is possible for health
workers to dispense medications ( eg:- in places endemic to malaria,
dispensing of antimalarial medication, same with filarial endemic
areas etc.) since the diagnosis part here is not encroached upon, it
being an endemic area.
But otherwise The pharmacist must involve himself with patient
counselling, medication review, History taking etc. all these
activities may be indirectly be related to diagnosis ( eg:- finding
out by a Medical History review that a patient was taking "some
tablets" for "sugar problem" which went unnoticed by the Physician.
Medical science is a great grey area , with very little blacks and
whites. At the same time, the pharmacist must involve himself with
more medication related problems rather than diagnosis related ones.
The views expressed here are mine and it would be nice to have
comments based on them.
Lakhvinder Singh Batolar.
Clinical Pharmacist
D-102, Prince apartments,
54, I.P.extension,
Patparganj, Delhi - 110092.
India.
lakhvinder@email.com
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