Tread cautious path while analysing prescription, experts tell pharmacists

Hyderabad: Experts opined that the clinical pharmacists need to be extremely careful when reading the prescriptions and stressed on the need to have a prescription audit to check medical errors.

The experts were speaking in the International Symposium on Medication Safety and Clinical Pharmacy organised by the Continental Hospitals here on Sunday. Sharing his views, Clinical Pharmacologist Dr Subhrojyothi Bhowmick said that the pharmacists need to be very careful when they analyse prescriptions. According to rough statistics across the globe whether they are developed or underdeveloped countries there is one error happening every day. Drug related morbidity and mortality are estimated to be huge economic consequences. He said that India was the generic capital of the world.

"We have hundreds of formulations, so many names. If you are not very vigilant, a wrong medicine will be detrimental to the patient. This is a tragedy waiting to happen. Medication errors can happen at any place," he said adding audits were the way in which the care of the patients could be improved by a multi-disciplinary approach. In the audit if you detect medical error, adhere to a standard indicator, said Dr Bhowmick.

Professor and Head, Department of Neuropsychopharmacology, Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences, Delhi Dr Sangeeta Sharma said that everyone should have access to healthcare.

"We have seen costs are escalating and one serious illness in the family can be a catastrophe. People have to sell their house and compromise on the education and nutrition of the children. Unfortunately the public health system has not geared up to take up steps. We have been taking baby steps," said Dr Sangeeta. She further said that there has been a paradigm shift in the roles of pharmacists. They are a very important part of the team. The pharmacists are the one of the three pillars for service delivery. Patients rely on the pharmacists for medication related questions, she said.

Continental Hospital Chairman Guru N Reddy said that by next 20 years India needs 3.5 million hospital beds, 3 million doctors and six million nurses all at a cost of $250 billion. The potential and enormous opportunities for the young pharmacists were incredible. He said that there were 1.6 million registered pharmacists in India, which is 30 to 40 per cent of the world.