Senate sub-committee gives 15 days for registration, instructs DRAP to improve monitoring of substandard medical products. PHOTO: FILE
The meeting was attended by Senator Dr. Asad Ashraf, Senator Sardar Muhammad Shafiq Tareen, Senator Kulsoom Parveen and senior officers of the National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination, Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) and Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP).
The meeting was called to probe issues of registration of doctors with PMDC, fake medical practitioners and the production and sale of substandard medical products.
While discussing the issue of expired registrations of doctors, the committee was informed that there are 75,000 doctors in Pakistan whose registrations have expired. Taken aback by this disclosure, the committee said that in order to improve the system it was imperative that all doctors be registered and their degrees investigated.
Patients suffer as no senior doctors available in late hours
Senator Dr. Ashok Kumar directed the PMDC to send letters to chief secretaries of all provinces regarding this issue. He instructed the council to place an advertisement in all national dailies urging doctors to renew registrations within fifteen days. The committee instructed the PMC to submit it a report.
Spurious medicines
On the issue of substandard drugs, the committee was informed that out of 889 pharmaceutical factories, 647 are in functioning condition. However, there are only 22 officers to monitor these factories.
The committee instructed DRAP to establish more labs across the country to check production of substandard medication. It also criticized the non-functionality of the lab in Islamabad. DRAP was also directed to develop standard operating procedures to improve its performance.
The Committee directed that SOPs are to be developed to improve DRAP’s performance.
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