Pune: Chemists across the State protest against e-pharmacy draft by putting black ribbon during work hour between September 21 and September 27. The nation-wide strike is on September 28 where all chemists and druggists’ shops will remain shut the whole day.
Around 9,000 chemists from the city and the 85,000 chemists from across the State shall wear the black band as a mark of protest.
Jagannath Shinde, President of All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD), said that the proposed e-pharmacy draft aims to give permission to online pharmacies to register and start selling medicines only.
“So far, the chemists association has underlined that in e-pharmacy there is a chance that the wrong kind of medicines are sent to patients. Some drugs like insulin which are used by diabetic patient need to maintain proper temperature. Moreover, in the case of diabetes and other kinds of medicines, they require a proper cold chain to maintain a certain temperature. How will an e-pharmacy design that? And what is the guarantee that the patient will get the medicine which is not spoiled,” said Shinde.
“It was observed that many Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) kits were sent to underage girls.
These kits can put the lives of these girls at risk,” he added
“It was also seen that many sleeping pills were delivered to patients without any proper prescription from doctors. Also, mild addictive drugs were also sent in huge quantities through e-pharmacy. The government should include provisions where such issues are addressed,” said Shinde.
Speaking to Sakal Times, Prassana Patil from Chemists Association of Pune District stated that though on September 28 all the pharmacies and chemist shops will be shut, the emergency services will be running.
“We do not want the patients or our customers to suffer and hence, all emergency services in hospitals will be running,” informed Patil.
