Veteran academic and professional pharmacy experts say the Union government should take into consideration the name of former PCI chairman Dr. B Suresh to be included in the panel as co-chairman. They are unhappy with the way the Union health ministry recently formed an expert panel to review the Pharmacy Act 1948 and make recommendations accordingly to restructure the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI). As president of the PCI, Dr. B Suresh brought the six-year doctoral pharmacy programme, or Pharm D, to India at a time when the World Health Organization (WHO) was accusing the nation of widespread, irrational drug use in an effort to bring Indian pharmacy standards up to par with those of other nations.
This doctoral programme in “pharmacy practise” also contributed to the promotion of Indian pharmacy education’s role in achieving international recognition. According to B Rajan, a former president of the Kerala State Pharmacy Council, he also played a significant role in advancing the idea of “pharmacy practise” in India (KSPC). In a letter to the union health minister, Rajan called attention to the issue and noted that there were insufficiently few specialists from the domains of pharmaceutical sciences and other professional fields on the current expert panel. He said that in order to ensure the success of the pharmacy profession in the nation, Dr. B Suresh’s knowledge and talent must be used.
Dr. K. Chinnaswami, a former president of the Tamil Nadu State Pharmacy Council (TN SPC) and former principal of the pharmacy college at the Madras Medical College in Chennai, made similar remarks about the need to include Dr. B Suresh on the expert panel. He said that the people of the nation, particularly the pharmacist community in India, wanted Dr. B Suresh’s services. He claimed that Dr. B Suresh is credited with creating the Indian pharmacy profession. ‘If he is appointed as a member of the expert committee, he will act as a representation of the pharmacists in the country, a representative of the people of the country. According to Dr. Chinnaswami, his name ought to be included first because he merits the praise.
The Indian Pharmacy Act is likely to be altered in Parliament for the first time, according to the nonagenarian academic expert Dr Chinnaswami, also known as ‘Captain of Pharmacy’, who was speaking about the upcoming change. Even though the PCI made some attempts to work with the government in the past, they all fell through owing to political intervention in Parliament at the time of the discussions. By bringing regulations and making some changes to the requirements, the PCI did so without the parliament’s approval. Dr. V Gopal, a physician from Pondicherry who is also an expert in education and a former head of the PCI’s educational regulation committee, believes that Dr. B Suresh should be remembered when the Indian government reforms the Pharmacy Act of 1948. He stated that Dr. Suresh must be added as a senior member of the panel if changes are to be made to the laws, the profession, and the education.
However, they requested that the government add experts with a background in pharmaceutical chemistry and pharmaceutics to the list because, in their opinion, the current list primarily consists of people with pharmacology and medical backgrounds. Pharmacy professionals from various parts of the country have written to the union health secretary to review the government’s decision regarding the panel members already nominated.
