The region’s pharmacy sector is bound to grow considerably in the forthcoming years in view of the advances in the pharmacy education.
Speaking to Gulf Times on the sidelines of the day-long 1st Qatar Pharmaceutical Symposium, hosted by the Hamad General Hospital (HGH) at Hajjar auditorium yesterday, pharmaceutical experts from across the region said the role of pharmacists has expanded phenomenally in the last decade.
A senior official at Riyadh’s King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, Dr Ahmed al-Jedai, said a pharmacist’s role is no longer confined to that of a medicine dispenser.
The director of the pharmacy division at the Saudi Arabian hospital, Dr al-Jedai is a clinical pharmacist and has contributed largely to the solid organ transplant in the region.
Recalling developments in the pharmaceutical sector, Dr al-Jedai said the GCC had only two pharmaceutical colleges some four decades ago, in Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
“However in the last one decade alone, Saudi Arabia has set up about a dozen new colleges in pharmacology and the country’s government is planning to start more in coming years,” said Dr al-Jedai.
The King Faisal Hospital official said a large number of more pharmacy students were passing out from campuses after completing doctoral studies unlike what it used to.
“There used to be only bachelors in pharmacy studies earlier. These days more institutions are offering doctoral courses and students are keen on completing such courses rather than bachelor courses,” reiterated Dr al-Jedai.
The Saudi official feels there has been a phenomenal shift in the whole studies related to the pharmacy studies and activities that followed it, in recent years.
Pharmacists, he said, are actively contributing in different capacities like facilitators, advisers, counsellors and health care professionals at high level institutions that have understood their abilities well.
In most institutions, the support services of pharmacists are recognised at the highest levels and they are treated on par with any other medical professionals, said Dr al-Jedai. “No doctor takes independent decisions concerning health care, without discussing it with pharmacists.”
Such a development could take place in the pharmacology sector only because of the developments in studies related to clinical pharmacology, argued Dr al-Jedai.
HGH pharmacology director Dr Halemah al-Tamimi said significant strides made in pharmacy studies have helped the fraternity of pharmacists in a great way. “Their roles are being widely recognised in the health sector, pharmacists are able to provide a variety of add on services to the field,” she said.
Al-Tamimi said pharmacists are playing key roles in medical teams, providing holistic and multi-disciplinary care. “They are as equal as physicians and nurses in medical institutions like HGH,” she said.
She said the role of clinical pharmacist at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) is becoming more recognised and valued by physicians and surgeons.
Dr al-Tamimi said the HMC could not have realised its vision of becoming an international centre of excellence materialised had its pharmacy services not reach the desired level.
The HMC official said the hospital is working on increasing the number of clinical pharmacists in all clinical areas. “This requires a lot of investment in training our pharmacists, both locally and abroad. With the introduction of a range of accredited post graduate programmes for the hospital’s pharmacists, it could train a considerably large number of graduate pharmacists to help the hospital meet the ever increasing demand in its services,” she said.
The hospital encourages pharmaceutical research and would like to see its pharmacists get a larger share of applications for research grants submitted before the Qatar National Research Fund every year.
Dr al-Tamimi said effective communication and good working relations with physicians, nurses and other health care providers give pharmacists the opportunity to demonstrate their important role in preventing, managing and resolving drug-related problems throughout the continuous care.
Pharmacists, she said, must monitor changes in the provision of health care, determine the implications for their practice and seek opportunities for participation outside the walls within which they have traditionally practised.
No comments:
Post a Comment