Doctors’ shortage: pharmacists in Odisha hospitals allowed to prescribe drugs for some ailments

Pharmacists cannot prescribe drugs which are not available in Niramaya — a free drug supply scheme.

In a bid to overcome difficult situations due to the , the Odisha government has allowed pharmacists to dispense drugs to patients for 12 diseases.

“Many of the single doctor hospitals in the State are managed by the pharmacists in absence of doctors due to some reason or other. It is difficult to manage the said hospitals without any specific government orders entrusting the pharmacists for treatment of patients and list of ailments to be treated by them,” said the Department of Health and Family Welfare in a communication.

It said, “in order to overcome the difficulties, the government after careful consideration has been pleased to decide that in partial modification to earlier department order, the pharmacists are entrusted to dispense the drugs for ailments for treatment in absence of doctors.”