Dear all pharmacists and other friends

I am immensely pleased to have a very healthy discussion regarding developments in pharmacy curriculum, and strongly believe that we can make a change with our sincere efforts and participation. First of all, I want to clarify the point raised by Ghulam Razaque sb “Walkout from the meeting” because of the exciting confusion. In the curriculum meeting, Prof. Dr. Saeed Ul Hassan being Principal was invited from University of the Punjab, he wrote to HEC to invite Professor Dr. Bashir Ahmad and myself also. He got the verbal invitation for both of us. Therefore, on the meeting day, we accompanied our principal. At the start of the meeting members of the council told the chairman about our presence without invitation. The chairman said that we can attend the meeting but can not contribute. So there was no point to waste three days there and we came back. This is truth.

The second thing that I would like to explain that some of our pharmacists are misinterpreting this issue. They are playing a cunning and Hippocratic role to the community and having propagating wrong informations.  In my opinion; we can refine our system with critic and good politics. If there is vested interest of members of the council they make SROs but when it is matter of the community they ignore to make any SRO. For example, no SRO came to stop category B and C, but SRO came to snatch Rs 1000/enrolled student.
We, the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of the Punjab are not involved in any game but are only ready to resist any illegal/unlawful move of the council or anybody else that is not in the favor of the pharmacists.

Regarding the curriculum our conscious is clear that it should be country need-based. We will support the one year residency, if paid reasonably like many countries abroad, and there is only Registered Pharmacist, not B and C. Requesting to all those who are at key positions to contribute and influence to up-lift the status of pharmacists.

Thanks and regards

Dr. Khalid Hussain Assistant Professor; School of Pharmacy, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan.

It is a pleasure for us that today all the pharmacists are struggling for their rights; designing strategies to stop distorting policies and walking out form the council meetings. I appreciate the pharmacists who are not supporting the council and other greedy government/ semi government officials working for their own personal interests.

Moreover; the council is now ignoring all the government officials and imposing rules without taking views from pharmaceutical experts of all provinces. The regulatory bodies have also ignored the nominations of provinces in this regard. But here I would like to emphasis to think just about the profession not become personal benefits. This matter should be resolved by forming a committee of teachers of the public sector Universities of all provinces, under the supervision of Higher education commission.

It is also an exciting contribution in profession if the memberships and secretary of the pharmacy council changed. The basic qualification of the secretary should be  Ph.D in pharmacy, because the syllabus and the other matters should be  discussed under the chairmanship of a Ph.D professor not a three years pharmacy degree holder.

The P.hD professor has the expertise in the subject of pharmacy and the legally nominated members from the provinces were selected then this matter should be resolved under the supervision of the council.

Ghulam Razaque Dept. of Pharmacy, University of Baluchistan, Sariab Road, Quetta 87300 Pakistan. Ph.  + 92 – 81 – 9211547, + 92 – 81 – 2449180, Cell:  + 92 -333-783 6471, Email: razaque_pharmacyuob@yahoo.com

Pharmaceutical Reviw (www.pharmarev.com). Dr. Fahad Javaid President Pharmacy Graduate Association has pointed out the illegal and substandard training procedure in Jinnah University for Women Karachi as under;

Dear Nazeer ud din Ahson, Secretary Pharmacy Council, Government of Pakistan, Islamabad.

 Subject:  ILLEGAL TRAINING OF JINNAH UNIVERSITY FOR WOMEN KARACHI

 Dear Sir,

I want to bring into your kind notice that Jinnah University for women Karachi is engaged in the internship of Pharm.D students by the professional who are not concern with the pharmacy profession at all. They are loosing time by getting training through physician only.  As per the policy of pharmacy council of Pakistan and all the provincial of pharmacy councils guiding the pharmacy institutions and faculties to provide internship/training in a hospital where there pharmacy/clinical pharmacy are established. It has been noticed by the pharmacy graduate association that the aforementioned university is doing illegal practice by sending there talented student to a physician who is not a pharmacy professional nor having any experience of hospital pharmacy/clinical pharmacy in Abbasi Shaheed Hospital at Karachi.

It is therefore requested that the management of the Jinnah University including Vice Chancellor and Registrar may please be advice to refrain this practice with immediate effect. Further more they have got a fictitious certificate from Liaquat National Hospital Karachi to eye wash the pharmacy council that their students are getting training at Liaquat National Hospital Karachi, which is not a fact.

Pharmacy Graduate Association is very anxious about the future of Pharm.Ds and request your honor to take immediate action and advice the university to stop forgery.

Hoping your immediate action under intimation to Pharmacy Graduate Association for further communication to all concern.

Thanking you with regards,

 Dr. Fahad Javaid President Pharmcy Graduate Association, R0331, Sector 16/A, Gulshen-e-Wasim Buffer Zone, North Nazimabad, Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. Cell: +92 300 258 5291. Email: pga_2011_12@yahoo.com

Copy to:

1. Federal Secretary Health, Government of Pakistan, Islamabad.
2. Provincial Secretary Health, Government of Sindh, Karachi.
3. Secretary Pharmacy Council, Government of Sindh, Karachi.

Dear Pharmacist Friends!

I totally agree with the kind opinion of Dr Khalid Hussain. Addition of another year is absolutely useless. After graduation I worked as demonstrator but wouldn’t I get it after B Pharm? I was at the same place same at same pay at the place where people with four years degree were already working there. My fifth year seemed like a waste. If I would have started an year ago..I could have one years experience. One year spent at job AFTER graduation is far better.

I wanted to get register in UK n my plan is delayed a year because only requirement is pharmacy degree n registration with Punjab council. What will happen with those who undertake six years I degree. They wouldn’t get their registration and will get stuck?

My request is to please let students free after four years and then allow them to do what they want to. In UK pre registration training is PAID and pay is fixed by NHS (18,000 pounds per year approx.) and that money is paid to PRIVATE companies and pharmacy owners by NHS and rate is changed every year in drug tariff. Is there any provision like that in Pakistan?

And above all, what about those parents and students who pass their time in hope of getting productive and step in professional life as soon as possible. They would not be able to wait for sixth unpaid year. Result would be, people will no more like to go to Pharmacy Schools and how is it helping Profession?

Solution can be a basic four years degree and then segregation for clinical Pharm D followed by residency and on another hand who want to leave after 4 years degree, they should leave. With current copy-paste approach for curriculum, neither supporter for clinical pharmacy nor for basic sciences is happy. Our Pharmacy curriculum should be designed keeping in mind strictly the situation in Pakistan.

Regards

M A Shafique; London UK

Dear Pharmacists!

AA
I think that there is a lot of confusion about the imposition of extra year and above all the positive criticism is regarded as a politic. Many academicians including myself have written about the curriculum at various international and national levels so that it may be aligned with the needs of Pakistan. History reveals that criticism is a way to progress. I agree that professional/practical experience is necessary to get the jobs but unfortunately it is being made mandatory for registration with the provincial councils. We must know the difference between things will be done and things have been done.

Moreover; I request the pharmacists who do not possess experience/ expertise/ exposure/ sufficient informations of academic to avoid community exaggerate and confuse the task. Our main objective is to enhance the professional credibility rather than extension of tenure. Thus; I want to make few submissions for pharmacists as under;

1.) Nothing has been done in 60 years to have three types of pharmacists, A, B and C.
2). No one has guaranteed that this extra year will be paid, instead pharmacists have to pay money to companies, hospitals and pharmacies (affiliated by the Pakistan Pharmacy Council). Can anyone insure the placement of over 4000 pharmacists/year in companies, hospitals and pharmacies for training, just in Punjab?
3). At present, there is unemployment of registered pharmacists and those who are being employed are very low wages. How we can expect a good salary for unregistered pharmacists?
4). If we take the example of doctors, they get registered with their council immediately after their graduation.
5). The poor pharmacists will not be eligible to apply for Govt.  jobs without registration.
6). Except studies, registration is prerequisite for those intending to go abroad for pharmacy practice.
7). What will be the fate of foreign students? Do they have to stay for one year?
8). Since, most of the pharmaceutical care facilities are only available in major cities, who will provide the secure boarding? How many can afford the boarding expenses?

There is many more reservation but I just want to cut short by the following submission.
” In annual system of education, we have three month’s holidays/year (in 5 years 15 month) that should be utilized for practical training. There is no need of extra year in a poor country like ours”

May Allah gives us strength and guidance to up-lift the pharmacy profession in Pakistan by taking required stringent steps, so that Pakistani pharmacist can have a reasonable status in society. Really, it is distressing to see a lot of unemployed people coming to seek job information, and offers are just Rs 8000/month which is extremely insufficient to meet the mere travelling expenses.

Regards

Dr. Khalid Hussain PhD (Pharm. Chemistry) University College of Pharmacy, University of the Punjab, Allama Iqbal Campus, Lahore-54000, Pakistan. Cell: +92-3324249323

Dear All,

It’s a matter of great pleasure that pharmacy council of Pakistan is up-dating the curricula of Pharm-D (5 degree program), being pursued in all the institutions of pharmacy in the country. Different views have been received by all of us. Some people are trying to be over smart in protecting the view point of the council, ignoring the interest and benefits of the pharmacist in general and pharmacy profession in particular. I am not sure about the mother institute and present work place of Mr. Hamza Kaif. His statement smells that he has tried to drag unnecessarily Jamiat and politics into this curriculum issue. To the best of my knowledge he the first one to give this sort of statement.

Dear Hamza, we are all pharmacists and stand united firmly to protect and up-lift the profession of pharmacy without playing politics and won’t let others to play. Myself and all the learned Faculty of pharmacy, University of the Punjab, have already shown our grave concern and resentment regarding the present draft of curriculum. We expect the same feeling and attitude of the pharmacy community. We are fully committed to defend against the any illegal/unlawful damaging step of pharmacy council. We are fully aware through the kindness of many of our friends, who are members of the council, that some members are playing tricks to gain benefits after their retirement and also mint money during their membership tenure by illegally forcing the institutes in the private sector. We might knock the door of the court for getting justice for pharmacists.

Regards;

Prof. Dr. Bashir Ahmad & Faculty of Pharmacy University College of Pharmacy, University Of The Punjab, Lahore-Pakistan.

Am J Pharm Educ. 2008 June 15; 72(3): 71.; PMCID:  PMC2508726;  Copyright © 2008 – American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy.

Syed Imran Ahmed, BPharm, MPharm (Clinical 3Pharmacy) and Mohamed Azmi Ahmad Hassali, BPharm, MPharm, PhD

School of Pharmaceutical and Health Sciences International Medical University Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Discipline of Social and Administrative Pharmacy University Sains Malaysia (USM) Penang, Malaysia

To the Editor: With the help of the American Journal of Pharmacy Education (AJPE), which has established a reputation for providing a forum for discussion about the issues in pharmacy education and practice, I would like to draw the attention of readers – especially people in the pharmacy profession – toward issues regarding the doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) degree.

In reference to a letter recently published in AJPE, entitled “PharmD Degree in Developing Countries,” I have a few concerns with the author’s criticism of the progress of the PharmD program in developing countries such as India, Pakistan, and Iran.¹ I agree that the PharmD degree is a multidisciplinary and multifactorial program with the aim of producing a pharmacist equipped with better clinical skills who can provide pharmaceutical care to the patient. Before we comment on this program, we must look at the history of the development of the pharmacy profession. It took years for the pharmacy profession to be recognized as a separate health care profession, which is very different from the traditional perception of pharmacy as a compounding and dispensing job. Further, it took years, even in developed countries like the United States, to revolutionize the pharmacist’s job from merely a dispenser to a highly skilled clinical pharmacist. As Miller states: “The clinical pharmacy movement began at the University of Michigan in the early 1960s.”³

Now, in countries like the United States, mostly clinically skilled pharmacists are required in order to fulfill the requirements of the system that has developed there over the years. Because the PharmD program was first introduced in the United States, the curriculum is modified to be useful for that system, having more training, attachments, and clinical studies. Now the question arises, where does the practice of pharmacy stand in other countries? We know that the conditions are worse in developing countries where the profession is still fighting to be recognized with its own worth and reputation.

In most of these countries, the main option for a graduated pharmacist is still to work in pharmaceutical industries. If those graduates had not learned anything about industrial pharmacy in their pharmacy curriculum, what would they do? That is why they still keep the industrial pharmacy aspects as part of their curriculum, together with the introduction of more clinically oriented modules and hospital attachments. Here an issue arises that has somehow become a bone of contention among pharmacy professionals all over the world: since every country has its own standards of pharmacy practice, is it right to at least produce similarity in terms of degree that these graduates are getting from different universities in the world? In my opinion we should have a similarity of degrees issued. One major reason is that when different graduates from different parts of the world want to write any pharmacy board registration examination, the first consideration goes to their education evaluation in terms of number of years they spent to get their basic degree. In this respect, it would not be fair to these graduates if they can not take these registration examinations because they do not have a-5-year PharmD degree. According to the Foreign Pharmacy Graduate Equivalency Examination (FPGEE) Committee: ‘‘Beginning January 1, 2003, NABP will require foreign educated pharmacists to have earned their professional degree from a five-year curriculum program in order to apply for Foreign Pharmacy Graduate Examination Committee (FPGEC) Certification.’’ The decision is said to have been prompted by establishment of the 6-year doctor of pharmacy (Pharm D) curriculum in the United States.⁴

Another issue is whether any criteria determine that countries can award a PharmD degree with modified curriculum according to their pharmacy practice requirements. In our opinion it is an issue that should be discussed rather than simply criticized. Since the 4-year bachelor of pharmacy degree program is still being used in the majority of the countries in the world as a basic pharmacy program, when it was in practice in the United States and other developed countries before introducing the PharmD program, even then there was a difference in pharmacy practice and standards in different countries so why all of sudden with PharmD degree introduction a lot of criticism starts on these countries since they are trying to move together with the world.

In conclusion, our opinion is that the PharmD degree either (1) should be specified for producing clinical pharmacists, and bachelor of pharmacy programs should be continued as basic degree programs; or (2) there must be a similar definition of the PharmD degree all over the world. We think this decision should be made by decision-making authorities/associations who seek out the opinions of experts in the field. We also need to open this topic for discussion so that more ideas can be shared on some basic facts, and not simply criticize and present our own views. We hope that authorities will take this issue in consideration before it starts affecting pharmacists.

Syed Imran Ahmed, BPharm, MPharm (Clinical Pharmacy)

School of Pharmaceutical and Health Sciences International Medical University Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Mohamed Azmi Ahmad Hassali, BPharm, MPharm, PhD

Discipline of Social and Administrative Pharmacy University Sains Malaysia (USM) Penang, Malaysia

REFERENCES

1. Jamshed S, Zaheer Ud Din Babar, Masood I. The Pharm Degree in Developing Countries [letter]Am J Pharm Educ. 2007;71(6) Article 125.

2. Ghilzai NM, Dutta AP. India to introduce five-year Pharm D program [letter] Am J Pharm Educ.2007;71(2) Article 38.

3. Miller RR. History of clinical pharmacy and clinical pharmacology. J Clin Pharmacol. 1981;21:195–7. [PubMed]

4. Dutta A, Zaheer-Ud-Din Babar. The FPGEE Curriculum Requirement: An Insurmountable Hurdle? [letter] Am J Pharm Educ. 2005;69(5) Article 105.

Articles from American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education are provided here courtesy of
American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy

Phamraceutical Review (www.pharmrev.com). Entry-level PharmD degree programs in Canada: Some facts and stakeholder opinions. By Tamar Koleba, PharmD; Judith G.Marin, PharmD; Peter J. Jewesson, PhD, ACPR, FCSHP. 

The detail is as under;

Fultext PDF file