Scope of pharmacy education in Pakistan

Scope of pharmacy education


Pharmacy is a discipline which has grown quickly in Pakistan. Centres for pharmacy are developing into departments, departments into institutes and institutes into faculties. It appears that in the next few years there will be pharmacy schools, colleges and universities that will produce as many pharmacists as they can.

Along with its growth, pharmacy has changed some of its forms. In the beginning it was a diploma in pharmacy, then it changed to bachelor of pharmacy, and now a doctorate in pharmacy is being introduced in various universities.

DPharm in Pakistan is a wastage of time, as well as of money, if introduced without a proper service structure because different provinces have different job structures for pharmacists.

In Punjab, drug inspectors are employed at the taluka level, but in Sindh at the district level. This discourages the pharmacists of Sindh. Moreover, hardly any pharmacist is allowed to render his services in a true sense. Pharmacists thus prefer to go abroad where they are welcomed and well-paid.

Another reason behind promoting DPharm in Pakistan is to serve the privileged ones who should find it easier to go abroad where a BPharm degree is not sufficient to get a good job and those who carry BPharm degrees have to study there for at least one more year to convert their degrees into DPharm.

Studying one year in Pakistan is easy and cheaper than in developed countries where standard and hard work both are required simultaneously. The money spent on each student of DPharm will go to benefit a foreign country.

The government should look into the matter and formulate a balanced policy keeping in view the scope of pharmacy in all the provinces.

QADEER AHMED BHUTTO

Jamshoro