THE Pakistan Economic Survey keenly covers details about all healthcare professions, from the doctors to the paramedics and right down to the lady health visitors, but not pharmacists. It makes me wonder why the pharmacy profession is facing an existential crisis for so long. Such a tacit denial of pharmacists is lamentable for the Pharmacy Services Division of the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (Drap), the Pharmacy Council of Pakistan (PCP) and the Pakistan Pharmacists Association (PPA).

Despite the commitment to transform the face of the profession and to sensitise the government of the contributions of pharmacists and pharmacy services, the efforts of professional bodies have not even managed to gain a consideration or appraisal parallel to the paramedical staff.

Pharmacists across the world are recognised because of their myriad contributions to the healthcare delivery systems, especially patient-centred care, but not in Pakistan.

In my opinion, the image of the pharmacy profession in Pakistan is not improving primarily due to the lack of evidence-driven regulatory support and policy amendments. Pharmacists have not yet succeeded in providing the evidence of their importance and possible contribution to the healthcare system both in terms of clinical outcomes and economic savings. Though members of the pharmacy academia have been producing rigorous and precise results that underline the importance of advanced pharmacy services, they are not influencing pharmaceutical policies.

Rationally, governments of resource-deprived nations are careful in terms of utilising or investing their monetary resources and, therefore, almost all improvements in health policy are rooted in policy-informed research. Likewise, Pakistan, being a nation with resource constraints, seems uninterested in allocating funds and passing regulatory amendments to foster advanced pharmacy services due to lack of proven evidence.

Rather, regulators focus on meeting the basic as well as advanced healthcare related needs of the population through utilisation of workforce comprising traditional healthcare force; doctors, nurses and paramedical staff. Therefore, sharing of outcomes of impactful research together with workforce data and workforce planning activities seem a prerequisite for facilitating due recognition of pharmacy as a professional discipline.

In this regard, wide-scale pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventional studies and in-depth qualitative as well as quantitative research involving practising pharmacists, including hospital, community, industrial and regulatory pharmacists, seem imperative to justify appreciation of the policymakers as well as regulatory and monetary support from the government.

However, research activities in Pakistan have been stifled because of financial constraints, persistent lack of documentation, no or at best limited access to patient-related data, limited direct contact with patients, and regulatory hurdles.

The Drap, the PCP and the PPA need to work towards minimising these barriers in the field of pharmacy-related research. Also, they should seek support of the International Pharmaceutical Federation (IPF) as well as other international pharmacy and health organisations in terms of expertise as well as finances to generate impactful evidence of national relevance and to attract the required governmental recognition.

The healthcare regulators in Pakistan should acknowledge the role of the pharmacists and the services they render. After all, the whole world is using pharmacy services to strengthen their healthcare systems. There must be some valid reasons for doing that. The government and its bodies within the health sector should take a look at those reasons.

Iram Malik
Bahawalpur

Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2021