Port Blair, Nov 18: The National President of Indian Pharmacist Association – IPA, Shri. Abhay Kumar has expressed his gratitude to the Andaman & Nicobar Administration for regularizing the 12 (twelve) posts of Pharmacist.
In his letter to Lt. Governor of Andaman & Nicobar Islands said that “ It’s a matter of pride & happiness for the entire Pharmacist fraternity specially the twelve (12) Pharmacists who were working with sincerity & dedication under the Directorate of Health Services since 2009 on ad-hoc basis got their regular order on 28th of October 2016. I, on behalf of entire Pharmacist who got regularized would like to express my gratitude to Hon’ble Lt. Governor. Prof. Jagdish Mukhi ji, Hon’ble Member of Parliament Shri. Bishnu Pada Ray & Dr. Shipra Paul, the Director of Health Services. This was one of the long pending demands of IPA which got fulfilled within three months of assuming the office by Hon’ble Lt. Governor.
Further in his letter he has drawn kind attention of Administration towards different types of posts of Pharmacist lying vacant in the health department. As on date around 25 posts of Pharmacists are lying vacant as there is no recruitment being done since 2009. These 25 vacant posts of Pharmacists are as per the total strength mentioned in the RR published in 2001. Thereafter several up-gradation of health institutions have been done but not a single post have been created since then till now. It is therefore also been requested that besides filling up of existing vacancies new posts must be created. The posting of Pharmacist may be re-evaluated and posting must be done on the load of OPD patients & overall workload.
No drugs control department is in place under the Andaman & Nicobar Administration. It is pertinent to mention here that there is no full time notified Drug Inspector is posted/ working under A & N health department as of now. Sir, in the year 2002, two posts of Drug Inspector were created & it was mentioned that it could be increased depending on work load. Now, it is assumed that the post of drug inspector could be increased to at-least 05 along with 01 Assistant Drug Control (ADC) as work load has increased manifold. One ADC & three full time drug inspector are required for South Andaman district & one each for North & Middle and Nicobar District.
Likewise in the case of Chief Pharmacist, two posts were created when there were two hospitals – G B Pant, Port Blair & BJR Car Nicobar, whereas of now RP hospital Mayabunder and District Hospital Garacharma are also there which accumulates to total of 04 hospitals. This thereby necessitates the provision of at-least four Chief Pharmacist under the DHS. These posts of Chief Pharmacists were filled on seniority basis among the B.Pharm candidates of the in-service pharmacists of the health department. This may be continued as sufficient B.Pharm candidates are working as Pharmacist in the health department.
As the number of posts and vacancies are limited in these islands it is further requested that filling up of posts of ADC, Drugs Inspector and Chief Pharmacist must be done on promotional basis as the qualified B.Pharm graduates are evenly posted along with Diploma and Non-Diploma Pharmacist under the DHS without any monetary or positional benefit. Even there is no promotional channel for those B.Pharm Pharmacist working under DHS. This filling up of post of ADC, DI & Chief Pharmacist on promotion in seniority basis will at-least justifies the deserving status of these B.Pharm Pharmacist under DHS.
Moreover several recruitments for the different types of posts under ANIMERS – the ace medical collage of these islands were done, but not a single post of Pharmacist was recruited. It is learned that good number of post of Pharmacists could be recruited under ANIMERS.
A letter No. IPA/DEL/2014-15/124 dated 10/11/15 addressed to the Sec. (Health), A & N admn. was written by the Secretary General IPA in this regard in the year 2015.
“It is believe that under the Lt. Governor’s kind initiative for recruitment and filling up of different types of posts of Pharmacist under DHS and ANIMERS will help out the unemployed Pharmacists who have no recruitment opportunity since 2009 in these islands & those B.Pharm in service Pharmacist who have fewer opportunity during their entire service,” release from IPA said here.
