The Odisha government has decided to allow pharmacists to treat and prescribe medicines for certain ailments in the absence of a doctor, the state health department said in an official order.
According to the new order, pharmacists will allowed to prescribe medicines at single doctor-hospitals in the absence of a doctor. However, only government-supply medicines can be prescribed by the pharmacists under the Niramaya Scheme.
Pharmacists can prescribe medicines for certain ailments like Malaria, fever and upper respiratory tract infection. The government has categorically identified the thirteen types of diseases and the name of the medicines in its notification.
The pharmacists can provide medicines for malaria, in accordance with the guidelines of the national vector-borne diseases control programme. For fever and URTI, they can give prescribe paracetamol, azithromycin, cefixime, amoxicillin and ciprofloxacin. They can also treat diarrhoea, scabies and ringworm, among others ailments.
Bijaya Mohapatra, Public Health Director, said “Many of the single doctor hospital in the State are managed by the pharmacists in the absence of doctors due to some reason or other. It is difficult to manage with the said hospital without specific government order. In order to overcome the difficulties the state government faces, it has decided to modify the Health department’s earlier order. This will help a lot of patients in rural areas.”
However, Dr Santosh Mishra, senior doctor and former President of Indian Medical Association Odisha (IMA Odisha) opposed the recent move. “How can pharmacists treat and prescribe medicine to patients? This new government order will not be helpful to the patients, rather it will create new problems. Pharmacists can’t play the role of doctors,” he said.
