Your Rights at the Medical Store
فوکس
This four-page pamphlet provides crucial information on a customer’s
rights at a medical store. It outlines ways to identify licenced stores and pharmacists,
one’s responsibilities while visiting them and redressal mechanisms in case of
complaints.
The pamphlet was curated and brought out in 2021 by public health researchers Sunil Nandraj and Pranay Lal; pharmacists Raj Vaidya and Guru Prasad Mohanta; former Deputy Drugs Controllers (India) Malay Mitra and D. Roy; doctors Paul P. Francis, Kamala Rammohan and Tarun Seem; dentist Sonali Randhawa; and Vasudev Devadasan, a lawyer.
A ‘medical store’ is defined as a retail premise which sells medicines, drugs, and ‘ancillary’ medical services to the public, and is registered under the Drugs & Cosmetics Act, 1940, and the Drugs & Cosmetics Rules, 1945. On the other hand, a ‘pharmacist’ is a trained professional registered with the State Pharmacy Council under the Pharmacy Act, 1948, who dispenses medicines and information regarding their proper use. The pamphlet notes that information regarding original licenses or registration certificates issued to stores and pharmacists can be found on the websites of state drugs control department or council.
It enumerates 12 rights that
customers have at a medical store, relating to information about medicines,
damaged products and more. It also discusses five consumer responsibilities,
such as buying medicines from licenced providers; being courteous and respectful
to the pharmacist; being watchful and filing a complaint with the local drug
authority when the medicines being sold are damaged.
All complaints concerning a medical store can be directed to
the relevant state’s drug control department, and those relating to a
pharmacist can be lodged with the Pharmacy
Council of India or the concerned State Pharmacy Council.
Originally written in English, the pamphlet has been translated
into 12 Indian languages by the PARI team: Pankaj Das (Assamese); Joshua
Bodhinetra (Bangla); Faiz Mohammad (Gujarati); Devesh (Hindi); Shankar N.
Kenchanur (Kannada); Medha Kale (Marathi); Rennymon K. C. (Malayalam); OdishaLIVE (Odia); Kamaljit
Kaur (Punjabi); Rajasangeethan (Tamil); Aparna Thota (Telugu) and Mohd. Qamar
Tabrez (Urdu).
The following are excerpts from the 12 rights that the
pamphlet lays down:
Right 1: Pharmacist can suggest
preventive measures; recommend non-prescription medicines appropriate for your
condition and refer you to the doctor if necessary.
Right 2: At the request of a consumer,
the pharmacist can additionally provide Patient Information Leaflets on various
illnesses/diseases and recommended medicines, or give instructions in writing,
to supplement verbal information and how to store medicines, the directions for
their use, and potential side effects.
Right 3: Pharmacist can check your
blood pressure, instant blood sugar, and guide a consumer further on how to monitor
oneself at home.
Right 4: Consumer has the right to
know the name of the owner/s, the registered pharmacists, and their registration
number along with other details.
Right 5: Medical stores must dispense
medicines in an environment that is safe, properly lighted, well ventilated,
and clean.
Right 6: Consumer has the right to be
informed about the medicine’s quality, quantity, potency, purity, standard, and
price and gets answers to any questions you may have regarding the medicines.
Right 7: Consumers
can demand services in a confidential manner and expect that all information
pertaining to their condition.
Right 8: Consumer has the right to be
treated and received with respect, courtesy, dignity, professional standards,
and without any bias or discrimination.
Right 9: Consumers
must insist on a bill and must tally their products received against the
prescription, to ensure that the right medicines at the right price and
condition have been dispensed to them. The consumer must preserve the bill
until they are completely used.
Right 10: Pharmacists
must dispense products that are intact, valid (that is within the expiry
period), stored as per specifications, and free from any damage.
Right 11: The itemized bill must include
the patient’s name and address, details of the doctor, details of the product,
batch number, expiry date, MRP, explanation of all charges, name, and address
of the medical store, license number, and signature of the pharmacist.
Right 12: Consumers have the right to
complain against a medical store or pharmacist without restraint, interference,
coercion, discrimination, or reprisal.
PARI Library's health archive project is part of an initiative supported by the Azim Premji University to develop a free-access repository of health-related reports relevant to rural India.
مصنف
D. Roy, Guru Prasad Mohanta, Kamala Rammohan, Malay Mitra, Paul P. Francis, Pranay Lal, Raj Vaidya, Sonali Randhawa, Sunil Nandraj, Tarun Seem and Vasudev Devadasan
کاپی رائٹ
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تاریخ اشاعت
2021