OPCA wants Odisha govt to be more liberal and supportive towards pharmacy institutions in policy matters

Chennai, July 28, 2021:

The Odisha Pharmacy Colleges Association (OPCA) has alleged that the state government’s dealing in policy matters with pharmacy institutes is not liberal and supportive for educational growth but causes distress as well as inconvenience to the institutions, and often creates hurdles for the smooth running of the courses.

Even in the midst of the Covid pandemic, the government is insisting all the colleges for renewal of NoCs every year for all the courses, which is not mandatory in other states.

“The government wants even the decades old colleges which conduct diploma to degree courses to apply for approval for each course every year though the statutory bodies such as PCI and AICTE have already given permission for them. This creates difficulties and problems for the institutions despite repeated memorandums to the authorities to save them from applying for approval every year. The concerned authorities are regularly harassing the institutions,” says P Sathyanarayana, chairman of the pharmacy colleges association in Odisha.

He said unlike in other states where there is only one time approval is required, Odisha government is asking for seeking permission from the government every year.

In a telephonic interview with Pharmabiz, he said from Cuttack that there is mushrooming of pharmacy colleges at present in Odisha although the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) has imposed a moratorium two years ago for opening new institutions for diploma and degree courses. If the present set up continues, in another three years time, about one hundred more colleges will come up in Odisha. Presently, 70 colleges conduct pharmacy education, out of which 17 institutions run both degree and PG courses. Now, every year, 20-30 new colleges are rising up, further many managements are applying for approval to government and to the PCI to start fresh institutions, he said.

When asked about qualified pharmacists, Sathyanarayana said the total institutions every year produce nearly 3,000 diploma holders, 1,000 degree holders and 800 postgraduates. But, the grave problem is that job opportunities for the pharmacists remain unresolved. However, in the case of diploma holders, they do not face many problems as they are engaged in the medical shops or in the hospital pharmacies. The suffering lots are the graduates and postgraduates.

Going back to the situation that existed ten years ago in the state, Sathyanarayana said previously there were opportunities of teaching vacancies for B Pharm graduates who had three years experience in industry or in pharmacy practice. Now, since the number of M Pharm holders has increased, the teaching vacancies are filled up with postgraduates. He said the graduates are going out of the state for jobs in medical companies and healthcare institutions.

When asked about the industry training part of the B Pharm students studying in the colleges in Odisha where there is no pharma industry working, the OPCA chairman said since there is zero industry in the state, the managements send their students to industrial units in Hyderabad, Delhi, Chennai and Bihar for training purposes. But for diploma students they are getting trained in the hospital pharmacies in their villages. Talking about the necessity of drug manufacturing industry, Sathyanarayana, who is also the president of the Odisha (Utkal) Chemists and Druggists Association, said the OPCA is regularly putting pressure on the government to establish a pharma park in the state, which the government is seriously considering now.

In 2019 the PCI put a moratorium on starting new colleges in India except in north eastern states. The council, in its 106th Central committee, had raised a concern about mushrooming of pharmacy institutions in the country. At that time, according to the statistics available with the PCI, there were 1985 diploma colleges and 1,439 B Pharm colleges in India with an annual intake of 219,279 students for both the courses (D Pharm and B Pharm). The council felt that the available workforce was enough to meet the current pharmacist-to-population needs of the country. The rapid increase in the number of institutions in one decade may result in shortage of trained and qualified teaching faculty which may affect the quality of education imparted to students, the members of the central committee observed. Further, it was felt that the passed out students were not getting reasonably paid job opportunities in public as well as in the private sector.

Sathyanarayana said OPCA is thinking of starting the doctoral pharmacy program, Pharm D, in certain institutions after reaching a tie-up with major hospitals. PharmaBiz