Medics fault push to amend pharmacy laws

Pharmacists have rejected an attempt to amend laws touching on the sector saying it will predispose the practice to infiltration by unqualified personnel.

The Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya (PSK) now says amendments to sections of the Pharmacy and Poisons Act will allow lower cadre professionals such as technicians, to perform the roles and function of pharmacists. The amendments proposed in a Bill by Baringo Woman Rep Gladwell Jesire propose to have technologists enlisted in same register as pharmacists, a scenario pharmacists warn will lead to serious confusion.

“Pharmacy technicians are trained to provide assistance in pharmacies, but their training cannot be construed as making them responsible for medicines use for any patient,” PSK President Louis Machogu said yesterday. Machogu added: “We are at a loss to understand how amendments to CAP 244 have diluted the role of the professional to the level where there is no distinction between the professional and the paraprofessional.”

Machogu who spoke on behalf of the PSK executive council, said it was worrying that pharmacy technicians were being given practice licenses to serve patients without the oversight of a professional and without limitation of the type of medicines they can handle.

“This poses danger to the public served by a lower cadre without any oversight by a professional. No money can buy professional hierarchy,” Machogu said.