Over 75% of pharmacies in Pakistan are being run without trained qualified pharmacists to dispense medical prescriptions and only about 15% of qualified pharmacists are engaged in community pharmacy, Dr. Syed Zafar Zaidi, CEO, Indus Hospital & Health Network (IHHN) and Dean-Indus University of Health Sciences (IUHS) said.
“As a result, the pharmacy workforce in Pakistan is decades behind their counterparts in the developed world, in part due to the reluctance of doctors to engage pharmacists in providing direct healthcare service, unawareness in patients that they can consult pharmacists and many other factors”, Dr. Syed Zafar Zaidi said while speaking at a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) Signing Ceremony between Indus Hospital & Health Network (IHHN) and local pharmaceutical firm PharmEvo.
Under the MoU signed between the two organizations, PharmEvo is providing both, financial and technical resources for the construction of the upcoming ‘Ibne Sina College of Pharmacy’, Indus University of Health Sciences at the New Hospital Building in Korangi, Karachi. Dr. Syed Zafar Zaidi, CEO, IHHN and Dean-Indus University of Health Sciences went on to brief the audience on the acute challenges of Pharmacy education in Pakistan and maintained that limited interaction between doctors and pharmacists; lack of industry experience and a dearth of job opportunities in pharmaceutical care services were among some other issues faced by the pharmacists’ community in Pakistan.
“In these circumstances, we believe that Ibne Sina College of Pharmacy will pursue an aim to be a college of international standard and stature by implementing a world-class curriculum, instilling compassion in its students, creating linkages between academia and industry, fostering collaborative learning and offering a model of experiential learning”, he maintained. President IHHN, Dr. Abdul Bari Khan, acknowledged PharmEvo’s remarkable support towards the Ibne Sina College of Pharmacy, commenting that PharmEvo’s generosity clearly demonstrates the priority and value they place in laying the foundation of a world-class university in Pakistan, which will nurture the next generation of healthcare leaders, particularly in the field of pharmacy.
