Central TB Division signs MOU with pharmacy bodies to include pharmacies into RNTCP

Mumbai: Central TB Division, IPA, AIOCD, SEARPharm Forum and Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) have signed together a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) as a strategic development for insertion of pharmacies in Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) on 27 April, 2012.

This strategic development step has been firstly taken in the states of Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala and afterward it is decided to implement this in the entire country. Central TB Division is planning to adopt IPA’s training element for community pharmacists which is considered as a historic development for the pharmacy profession as under RNTCP. National Core Committee is also set up for the purpose.

Manjiri Gharat, DOTS TB pharmacist project leader and vice-president and chairperson of the CPD IPA said that this will be a milestone for pharmacy profession of India as it will set pharmacists' footprints in the national health programme. Gharat also added that, “It is for the very first time the pharmacies are included in any such a programme and is a step towards recognition of the pharmacists’ work as health care professionals.”