Arunachal Pradesh
IPC to strengthen PvPI activities in NE through 8 AMCs
In a move to strengthen the Pharmacovigilance Programme of India (PvPI) in the North East (NE) region, the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC) recently had a co-ordinators meet with all officials from its eight adverse drug reaction monitoring centres (AMCs). The meeting focused on discussing issues and challenges faced by the officials while reporting ADRs from states of Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya, Manipur and Sikkim.
Experts stressed that considering the importance of ADR in the success of the PvPI programme, pro active steps should be taken to streamline the activity by creating better awareness about the same among the people so that they will be encouraged to participate in the same. Dr V Kalaiselvan, senior scientific officer from the IPC informed that going in this line, the coordinators were directed to coordinate with the health departments in the rest of the NE states such as Nagaland, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh in reporting of ADRs.
In fact it is understood that Dr Y K Gupta, national scientific coordinator, emphasised that there is a need for strengthening PvPI for better reporting. There are a total three AMCs in Assam; two in Tripura; one in Meghalaya, Manipur and Sikkim each. The AMCs from NE, which had started reporting ADRs to NCC since 2011 have contributed approximately 3.5 per cent of the data to PvPI database till now. In fact, National Coordination Centre (NCC) provides all kind of logistic and technical support to the AMCs in NE to ensure medicines safety.
In fact the Commission, which is the NCC for the PvPI has already started streamlining their activities by organising continues medical education (CME) programme in collaboration with North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS), which is the AMC, in Meghalaya. Interestingly this is the first time IPC is conducting CME, which is a training programme in the NE region.
It highlights the proactive measure IPC is taking towards generating awareness and interest about ADR among the healthcare professionals, which includes clinicians, pharmacists, nurses, officials from the health department, government of Meghalaya, co-ordinators of NE AMCs.
According to Dr Kalaiselvan, “These initiatives are mainly aimed at strengthening the PvPI programme so as to generate a strong data base that will help in addressing the healthcare issues relating to use of drugs. Effective and timely ADRs play a vital role in the success of PvPI programme, thus understanding the different pattern of reporting is also very essential, as the adverse reactions change as per the ethnicity of the region. Thus getting more AMCs under the PvPI and training them is very essential to understand and generate a strong data base which is unique to the region.”
Source: PharmaBiz
More than half of hospitals & clinics in India yet to register under Clinical Establishment Act
Even after implementing the Clinical Establishments Act 2010, more than half of the clinics have not registered under the Act in the four States and seven Union Territories where the law is in force, and many of the establishments were lagging behind in the standards.
According to a recent study as part of preparing the minimum standards for the clinics, the registration with the state government/central government was nearly 47 per cent while rest of them failed to produce any documentary evidence for the registration.
The study was conducted by Indian Medical Association with the support of the Quality Council of India in 61 districts spread in Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Pondicherry, Sikkim, Daman & Diu, Dadra Nagar Haveli, Andaman and Lakshadweep.
“In support services the back up of electricity(85 per cent ) & medical records(89 per cent) are present however at many places the laundry arrangements(48 per cent) are present, in many cases they have tied up with some laundry set up. But in big multi speciality hospitals have their own services,” the study said.
According to it, medical records were still kept in hard copies in 88 percent of the establishments covered, but many big hospitals in the private sector have started with soft copies (electronic records).
“The presence of own blood bank is only in 11 per cent hospitals. However majority of the nursing homes have some attachment/ arrangement with the blood bank. Many nursing homes/ hospitals have ambulance service arrangements, although they may not own it but are outsourcing it. Pre-estimate charges, of planned elective surgery, normal delivery, etc., is made available which may change if any complication happens, hence revision of charges is also there. The consultation fee of the consultants is customized & fixed for all the patients,” according to the survey.
Among the major recommendations, the survey has called for infection control measures and creation of infection control committees in the hospitals. It also suggested bio medical waste management authorisation certificate, medical records maintenance by hard/soft copy, laboratory services, birth and death information register, back-up electricity, fire extinguishers, laundry facilities, ambulance arrangements, display of services etc among the minimum standards that should be maintained by the clinics.
Source: PharmaBiz
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