Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Open letter. To: Maharashtra FDA commissioner. Confederation of Pharma companies. And Pharamcist association.

Just today's news.....where chemists have threatened to go on a strike again across Maharashtra. And again, the FDA body of Maharashtra threatening to impose MESMA and ESMA ....some laws which allows the Govt to declare the strike null and void.

The game or the war game has been going on for a long time now. As per Maharashtra govt laws, it is now mandatory to have a qualified pharmacist in each and every shop that dispenses prescription medicines.

However, it is proving to be a nightmare for many chemist shops across the state. Lack of enough pharmacists. And those who are available, are too keen to seek their piece of flesh. An impasse that has resulted into many chemists downing their shutters in the state.

I am coming to one wild idea' here. A collaborate model which ties in 3 stake-holders. The chemists. The pharmacists. And the pharma giants( manufacturers )

Taking a cue from remote surgery, where, we see how surgeries are being conducted via video conferencing and all, my simple suggestion is- why not implement or try out a video-conferencing model when it comes to pharmacists also?? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_surgery

How it works.

Hypothetical scenario: There are 10 chemist shops in area X. All ten of them, partly funded by pharma companies also, install a video conferencing and networking module, wherein, one main chemist, will act as a SERVER CHEMIST where a PHARMACIST will be sitting and serving live.

Under this arrangement, one pharmacist sitting in one location, would be serving 9 other chemist shops, dispensing, and vetoing prescriptions, all via video conferencing.

This will enable ten shops to operate peacefully, with just spendings accrued on one PHARMACIST  instead of ten-pharmacists needed, as per law.

The point is simple: IF SURGERIES CAN HAPPEN VIA VIDEO CONFERENCING, WHY NOT DISPENSING MEDICINES??


Do share your views and feedback. And if you guys have any link, direct or indirect with FDA top brass, please pass it on.

Jai hind.