Daily Times

Sir: Diversified scientific work has helped the medical and pharmaceutical fields to expand their scope of application. Finding of a new procedure for surgery from invasive to non-invasive in the medical field has helped needy sufferers to do away with abnormalities and dysfunctional viscera. Similarly, scientific advancement in the pharmaceutical field has led to the discovery of highly effective and highly targeting drugs, administered with most acceptable pharmaceutical drug delivery systems. However, increasing exploration of new physiological complications and subsequent manufacturing of new drugs has increased the potential risk of drug-related side effects, as well as adverse drug reactions (ADRs). Here lies a huge responsibility on the shoulders of healthcare professionals such as physicians and specialists, but more on pharmacists. I specified pharmacists because they have extensive knowledge related to drug manufacturing, their safe handling, transportation and optimal storage in hospitals.

Pharmacists have professional degrees justifying their knowledge of drug chemistry, drug-drug interactions, ADRs and countering these effects with antagonists or antidotes. Every day, we encounter many cases of ADRs resulting in deaths of patients collapsing into a coma, miscarriages, infants and maternal deaths, early-age retardation and much more. Physicians and pharmacists need to establish a trustworthy professional bond to share their expertise to minimise risks of drug-related interactions to raise the quality of life. Federal and provincial health ministries need to implement the international health practices in hospitals, which allow physicians and pharmacists to work in collaboration. Increased risks of drug interactions due to poly-pharmacy, which is inevitable for patients with multiple or chronic diseases, can also be minimised by imposing a ban on medical stores through legislation and improving checks on pharmacies via drug inspectors.

It is mandatory for every pharmacy to make sure of the presence of at least one pharmacist who can identify any prescription error and correct it in consultation with the relevant physician. This practice is obligatory in western countries, and if implemented in Pakistan, it would create a huge difference from what is being experienced today in the healthcare system.

DR ZAIB ALI SHAHERYAR

Lahore