“Reduced intensity of the inspections at retail medical stores has created a conducive environment for compromised testing procedures, and limited penalties for offenders that finally results in the production and sale of counterfeit medicines at the retail medical stores across Jammu & Kashmir.”
The health safety is not only about the accessibility of people to basic health facilities but it is also about the quality of medicines sold at retail drug outlets in Jammu & Kashmir like other parts of the country. A failure in the patient care at a hospital resulting in the death of a patient catches the attention of the Government but a spurious medicine sold on a drug retail outlets even if becomes the cause of death of a patient does not attract the attention and intervention of the top functionaries of Health & Medical Education Department. The quality of medicines going down too low to become the cause of any critical ailment or death of a patient necessitates immediate attention and intervention of the dug control department which comes under the administrative control of the Health & Medical Education Department. Though fortunately both the Health & Medical Education Minister Sakina Itoo and as well as the present Administrative Secretary Health & Medical Education Department Dr Syed Abid Rashid have the distinction of being themselves the students of Medical Education but yet again drug outlets selling spurious medicine under broad day light evade action under their control in Jammu & Kashmir. While allegations are galore that authorities of Drug Control Department show laxity in regulation and enforcement of drug polices, health experts believe that reduced intensity of the inspections at retail medical stores has created a conducive environment for compromised testing procedures, and limited penalties for offenders that finally results in the production and sale of counterfeit medicines at the retail medical stores across Jammu & Kashmir.
“As safe medication is the key to people’s accessibility to quality health services anywhere in the world and same holds good for the people in Jammu & Kashmir, a shared responsibility necessitating intense collaboration between the regulatory bodies, medical professionals, and the people is the only way to reduce the increasing sale and distribution of spurious medicines in Jammu & Kashmir.”
Implementing regulations strictly and enforcing them rigorously as such is the only way to deter the manufacturing, distribution, and sale of spurious drugs at the retail medical stores both in urban and rural parts of Jammu & Kashmir. While situation demands that immediate attention of the drug control department goes on increasing penalties for offenders and fast pacing regular inspections at all the retail medical stores across Jammu & Kashmir, the much bigger priority could be collaborations between drug regulatory authorities and law enforcement agencies for enforcing more strict curbs on supply and distribution of spurious medicines in both urban and rural parts of Jammu & Kashmir. As safe medication is the key to people’s accessibility to quality health services anywhere in the world and same holds good for the people in Jammu & Kashmir, a shared responsibility necessitating intense collaboration between the regulatory bodies, medical professionals, and the people is the only way to reduce the increasing sale and distribution of spurious medicines in Jammu & Kashmir.
