PANJIM: In violation of existing laws, veterinary hospitals in the state function without pharmacists. While the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) raids other pharmacies it does not even monitor medicines dispensed at veterinary hospitals, which are run by the government.
So the question arises–are veterinary pharmacies and hospitals exempt from the law? Certainly not. And the FDA is supposed to monitor that violation of law does not happen. But according to sources, the FDA invariably does not monitor the sale of veterinary medicines.
As per the statutory Pharmacy Act 1948, “No person other than a registered pharmacist shall compound, prepare, mix, or dispense any medicine on the prescription of a medical practitioner.”
But the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services Hospital in Goa (AHVS) which has handled medicines worth Rs 1.5 crore, this year, and will handle Rs 3 cr medicines next year, according to the Health Minister Laxmikant Parsekar, does not have a pharmacist in any of the hospitals.
In fact, there is not a single post of pharmacist created in the department if the information gleaned from the department and insiders say.
Also as per the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules 1945, “all medicines have to be dispensed by or under the personal supervision of the registered pharmacist”
The AHVS has five hospitals, 21 dispensaries and 52 sub-centres, where medicines are dispensed. And in all these places the medicines are not dispensed as per the law. This means that there is no registered pharmacist to supervise the medicines – a must as per the law. Medicines are being dispensed by unqualified persons – vet assistants, peons, bull attendants, which is completely illegal, if not downright dangerous. Besides this, it poses a serious risk to the health of animals.
There have been allegations that the lack of medicines has led to the death of at least 300 cattle according to allegations made by Naresh Sawal, MLA, in the house. .
Insiders, not willing to come on record due to fear of repercussion, also say that there is a lot of misuse of the medicines .
Pharmacists are the experts in handling and dispensing medicines. The presence of pharmacists at all these points, including at the purchase and ordering points can go a long way in streamlining the whole process.
“Yes, it is unfortunate, improper and against legal provisions that medicines are handled and dispensed by unqualified persons in the AHVS. Law permits only pharmacists to dispense medicines, and it is their expertise,” says Raj Vaidya, a pharmacist, “Unfortunately, pharmacists’ services are neither recognized nor properly utilized. The medicine mess in public hospitals can be very well sorted out if pharmacists are given full responsibilities of handling medicines right from decision making, to purchase, to handling, to dispensing”
There was major uproar in the assembly recently over shortage of veterinary medicines, but Parsekar insisted they were available. This was refuted by MLAs Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco and Sawal and corroborated by pharmacist Ratnadeep Kurtarkar who confirmed that the people with prescriptions from the Ponda hospital had increased in the recent past.
However, the bigger picture was that medicines need to be stored and handled correctly, whether they are for humans or animals.
