The Union Health Ministry on November 20 invited comments from the public and stakeholders on the proposed National Pharmacy Commission Bill, 2023. The Ministry proposes to finalise the Bill for setting up the National Pharmacy Commission and repealing the Pharmacy Act, 1948. For this, a draft National Pharmacy Commission Bill has been prepared and uploaded on the website of the Ministry for comments.
The Bill aims to improve access to affordable, high-quality pharmacy education, and ensuring the availability of pharmacy professionals nationwide and seeks to promote equitable healthcare by making pharmacy services accessible to all citizens.
The Bill also calls for a periodic and transparent assessment of pharmacy institutions and facilitating maintenance of a pharmacy register for India. It also encourages professionals to integrate the latest research into their work, contribute to research, and uphold high ethical standards and establishes an effective grievance redressal mechanism for relevant matters. The Bill proposes to constitute a commission with its head office in Delhi.
It also encourages pharmacy professionals to adopt latest pharmacy research in their work and to contribute to research.
The draft bill proposes flexibility to adapt to changing needs and seeks to set up an effective grievance redressal mechanism.
According to the draft, the Pharmacy Ethics and Registration Board will maintain a National Pharmacy Register which will have details of pharmacy professionals to ensure transparency.
