‘All Pharmacists must be trained to administer jabs’
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‘All Pharmacists must be trained to administer jabs’

January 20, 2022

Mysore/Mysuru: Regular market approval to Covishield and Covaxin vaccines may not make much of a difference to Pharmacists as they are not trained in vaccination, said N. Raghavan, proprietor of Raghulal & Co., Mysuru.

Speaking to Star of Mysore this morning regarding the Government’s Subject Expert Committee (SEC) recommending granting regular market approval to Covishield and Covaxin, he said that the approval will enable over-the-counter sales in the due course but will not be much of a use to Pharma business.

“But the point here is that Pharmacists are not trained in administering vaccines. In Western countries, all Pharmacists are trained in inoculation but in India we cannot do so as there is no upgradation of syllabus in B-Pharma to include inoculation. If we are trained and given a chance to inoculate people, we can do it as a service and at the same time, expand our business. Also, this will considerably reduce pressure on doctors, nurses and other paramedical staff,” he said.

This pandemic will not end as in the future there will be many variants and vaccination too is needed. “I really hope the Government upgrades the B-Pharma course to include inoculation so that it can at least decrease the burden of the medical fraternity. We need to be future-proof,” he added.

Even over-the-counter availability of Covishield and Covaxin will not boost sales as already, vaccination of both the doses has been completed and now a third dose is being administered. “India has achieved wonders in vaccination and is far better than the most powerful and first world countries that are lagging behind. Even if newer strains come, our own vaccines are capable of preventing them,” he added.

10 COMMENTS ON THIS POST To “‘All Pharmacists must be trained to administer jabs’”

  1. Dr. Ajay says:

    This Raghulal medical shop owner should first get his act together before dreaming of usurping doctors’/nurses’ jobs. His shop is dark, dingy, cramped with no social distancing. Customers have to wait for a long time to be attended to. No que system is in place and people just fall on top of each other to get to the counters. I bet most employees of the shop are not qualified to be hnding out drugs. There are enough qualified medical professionals to administer the jabs. Pharmacists should stay in their lane.

  2. Gautam says:

    Hello Dr Ajay
    Aside from the pharmacist shop you refer to-they are business, and you are too as you fleece your hapless patients, and often you have no idea of the illness the patient is suffering from.
    You , Indian doctors, who get into medical colleges, through the route of paying lakhs of Rupees, not on merit, should realise that in all Western countries, the pharmacists give flu and other jabs, as they know their customers better than the doctors. They are trained in their pharmacy courses.
    You cannot avoid the progress doc.
    The government has to pass the law to the effect that pharmacists get training in administering Jabs.
    You the doctors in India are fossilised greedy beings.

  3. Captain Jack Sparrow says:

    @Dr Ajay
    You sound spiteful and unprofessional.
    I have seen you doctors getting the kickbacks from the pharmacist, when you write prescription and ask the patients to go to a particular pharmacist.
    Karnataka alone churns out hundreds of doctors, who enter medical colleges paying hefty capitation fees to become doctors. Private clinics which have mushroomed like corner stores, simply bankrupt patients working in collusion with doctors, and the patients come out no better.
    Outside India, every country trains pharmacists to give jabs. People prefer friendly pharmacists, who are flexible and give time most suited to their customers, for jabs. They often warn patients about the mistakes made by doctors, in their drug prescriptions.
    Forget about the assistants working in pharmacies, but focus on the designated pharmacist who can givebe trained to give jabs.
    After all, in most countries, outside India, patients who suffer from type1 diabetes, inject the prescribed dosage of insulin themselves.
    Grow up @Dr Ajay. The world has changed.

  4. Nandini says:

    Interesting that a doctor by accusing pharmacists, tries to protect his income. He will not mind, getting a slice of money back, when prescriptions are filled in by the pharmacist! Not does not object receiving sample medicines free, and charging them to patients!
    There was a time, when one had to go to an eye doctor, fixing an appointment days in advance to get eyes tested for glasses, and paying hefty fees. The patient then had to go to an optician with the prescription, to get eye sight tested again for glasses. This 2-step process, wasted hours.
    These eye doctors howled, when opticians took over the work, giving the patients the appointment time they ask for,, testing their eyes with drops, and giving out the glasses required for their eye sight -all in one sitting. In Western countries, the opticians , look for signs of glaucoma too as a routine, and dispense with the glasses in one sitting.
    As a poster said, if a diabetic patient can inject himself/herself the insulin, what is the issue in training a pharmacist to give jabs. This also ensures that the pharmacist is qualified in his profession.

  5. Garadi Mane Questo says:

    In India and in Karnataka, the pharmacist profession and the medical profession, both cleaning up. These are too many of these two categories who get qualified by throwing large amounts of money. Healthcare in India is in the private sector, with license to fleece patients willy-nilly.
    The Karnataka government in cooperation with the Centre, should make the display of qualified pharmacist in every pharmacy shop, who alone should give the jabs.
    Getting the degree of MD has become so easy in India and in Karnataka alone, every other doctor is a MD! Every other doctor too is a cardiologist!
    The DNB certification has become so routine and easier, one cannot trust a so called specialist with a MD and DNB.
    Clean up these 2 professions.

  6. A V Prasanna says:

    Let it be clear, every pharmacy / medical shop has only one qualified Pharmacist . The rest of the people are assistants who work under this person. Even if Raghulal pharmacy suggestion is cleared, which is ridiculous, only one person can be authorised. Objections raised by Dr. Ajay is fully justified and appropriate. Perhaps India is the only country where, a mason after years of experience becomes a contractor, constructing buildings which will not last a decade. Ward boys poses a Doctor. giving injectionsand prescribing medicines. ITI grade electrician qualifies as Electrical engineer. The list goes on. Govt. has no legal system to ban all these people from working as professionals. When you hire a Contractor or an Electrical engineer no one asks for their graduation certificate. So to Doctors who have lengthy alphabets after their name. This country runs on Rambharose, chalta hai attitute. Even Brahma cannot save India from system collapse

  7. Captain Jack Sparrow says:

    @Prasanna
    Indians like you blame others , as if you are perfect. They are your fellow citizens, and this state you describe exists because of you and all other Indians who have allowed it to be. Do not blame others.
    I have interviewed so called IT graduates from India, with degree in computer science, with ‘very good grades’ and they often are no good. They do routine coding without thinking the bigger picture of quality and reliability of what they have developed. We come across in the West, the software developed by Indian IT techies in Bengaluru sweatshops, which often malfunctions. M y friends, the medical specialists who interview Indian doctors, find most of them to be very poor in their knowledge and diagnostic ability -only a small percentage of them pass in a diagnosis examination set for them.
    I would rather take some one who is smart, knows the work and who cares for the quality of work rather than some one who graduated paying bribes to examiners ( many tried to do that when I was an examiner in a top university there, and was threatened by the senior officers of the university if I do not oblige them!) which is so common in medical/ engineering colleges that have mushroomed in India. I find Indian electrical technicians are more knowledgeable than an electrical engineering graduate, who often flounders when conducting surge testing a newly arrived distribution transformer.
    Have you found out how many qualified pharmacists are there in the pharmacy you mention? I bet , you did not. That is what is wrong with you Indians, who simply pass judgements without verifying the facts.
    If your medical specialities are so good, why those patients who suffered by their wrong diagnoses, borrow money and go to Singapore hospitals for treatment? Look for the number of visas granted by Singapore for the purpose. They are increasing every year.
    Giving jabs is not a highly skilled work, as it involved only the muscle, not the vein. A pharmacist can do it. That is the way forward.

  8. Shantala says:

    Hello Prasanna
    In case, you do not know, these jabs are given to a muscle!
    Were you ever charged by your doctor for a sample medicine given to him free by a pharmacist chain?
    I suspect, you would rather go to an eye doctor, for testing and glass prescription, which then is retested by an optician for correctness before dispensing the glasses!
    Perhaps, you also want a postgraduate electrical engineering graduate qualified in that Seer’s JSS university to fix your domestic wiring faults!
    No wonder patients are taken to bankruptcy by the private clinics in Mysuru!

  9. Shantala says:

    Hello Prasanna
    In case, you do not know, these jabs are given to a muscle!
    Were you ever charged by your doctor for a sample medicine given to him free by a pharmacist chain?
    I suspect, you would rather go to an eye doctor, for testing and glass prescription, which then is retested by an optician for correctness before dispensing the glasses!
    Perhaps, you also want a postgraduate electrical engineering graduate qualified in that Seer’s JSS university to fix your domestic wiring faults!
    No wonder patients are taken to bankruptcy by the private clinics in Mysuru!

  10. A V Prasanna says:

    Hello Captain jack Sparrow & Shantala
    My observations are misunderstood. Every qualification or experience has its limitations. Yes I do not expect a post graduate electrical engineer to certify house wiring. By the by have you heard of Safety audit in Industries, residences, commercial establishments? NO. while it is compulsory abroad, here in India no one has heard. This has resulted in fires, all attributed to electricity. Here what I meant was let the Pharmacists restrict his qualification and trade to dispense medicines. It is like any one can dance, anyone can be civil engineer, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, doctor, the list goes on. Why do one require education? if you are smart you can do anything. Hope this message is clearly understood by all.

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