The Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) has welcomed the decision of Health Department Punjab that pharmacists cannot do medical practice.
This is a just decision and doctors appreciate it, said PMA leaders in a meeting, chaired by Prof Dr Ashraf Nizami, and attended by Prof Dr Malik Shahid Shaukat, Dr Iram Shahzadi, Dr Wajid Ali, Dr Bushra Haq, Dr Ahmad Naeem Akhtar, Dr Izhar Ahmad, Prof Dr Tanveer Anwar, and others.
The PMA clarified that the president and general secretary of the Association Lahore chapter had attended the meeting at the Primary & Secondary Healthcare Department Punjab under the direction of the Lahore High Court Lahore.
The meeting had decided that pharmacists could render services under DRAP Act, but diagnosis and prescription for patients were purly domain of doctors, registered with the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC).
The PMA said the government should ensure sale of drugs only on prescription of registered doctors and there must be a ban on over-the-counter sale of drugs as this is equal to promotion of quackery.—APP