So November 2nd will henceforth be a big day in the history of Pharmacy profession within J&K state for on this day many long-pending demands of pharmacy professionals were accepted and incorporated in the draft drug policy of J&K. It was a marathon, three hour long brainstorming session with senior bureaucrats/officials of health department of J&K and even though many people from other fields were on my side too, but I was the only technical person speaking for the required change, it was so hard to convince them, but we drove the nail in with our perseverance and performance. Meeting was unofficial because there was no scope for an official meeting at this juncture since memo had already been issued for clearance of the previous, half-baked draft drug policy during the recently held cabinet meeting at Srinagar. Hope you've read health minister informing GK that policy will be through in a week's time. It was withheld only on our insistence. Therefore we were told not to make the issue public. I was very eager to share this good news with my students and couldn't hold it back on the eve of Eid. That doesn't mean I broke my commitment because they didn't tell us not to share it even with my students and it struck my mind that I can confine this status update to my students only, and that is exactly what I did. Only my students are able to see this.
After hectic lobbying and advocacy, Govt. of J&K agreed among other things during the meeting to engage pharmacy graduates in all hospitals of the state, start clinical pharmacy services and establish quality control cells in all major hospitals, make serious efforts towards restricting drug sale licences to diploma and degree holders in pharmacy only by framing education regulations, update and ammend J&K Pharmacy Act, fix annual testing load and average testing time of our drug testing laboratories, make necessary accomodation, communication, transportation and other facilities available to drug inspectorate of the state. These things and many others were incorporated in writing into the draft drug policy of the state which is likely to be declared in the next cabinet committee meeting later this month. Many other changes were made which I can't elaborate upon over here. However we are more interested in the points mentioned above because this is what we pharmacists have been dreaming for so many years now. Finally our long-cherished dream seems to be getting realized. Regarding gazetted cadres of DIs, I tried to push it through but due to resistance from some unexpected and unwanted quarters, couldn't materialize this time. Some people simply can't accept positive changes just for the sake of their big egoes, what to do. So after two months of hectic lobbying and advocacy through meetings, seminar etc we finally achieved our goal, during which we undertook a series of meetings with Governor, CM, Health Minister and six other ministers besides senior bureaucrats to get the necessary changes incorporated in the draft. Thanks to other office bearers and members of CSF (Civil Society Forum) without whose relentless efforts nothing would have moved. Now we need to have lot of patience and perseverance to translate the policy into action because you know how long it takes in govt to get things done. Last time in 2003 we framed and moved a proposal for creation of 90 posts of drug inspectors which got materialized only recently in 2009. We (alongwith J&K pharmacy graduates association) had to move the file literally from table to table during the six long years. Let us hope it won't take so long this time. I have sown the seed, now it is for others to nourish it so that it changes into a sapling, than a plant and finally a big tree that can provide shade to so many aspirants of our profession. Let everybody reap the fruits in the end.God Bless.
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