Bengaluru : The Pharmacy Council of India (PCI)’s digital platform for Pharmacist Registration & Tracking System (PRTS) is expected to be fully integrated by June 2021. The PRTS which was introduced in November 2018 by the Council is still getting the required inputs from various state pharmacy councils in the country.
The system according to PCI expedites easy verification of any pharmacist anywhere in the country. This brings in the much-needed transparency to the profession and the qualified professional. Further, it is designed to provide valuable information for data analysis that would help predict the future and scope of the profession, going forward.
PRTS is operational but not fully integrated nationally. It could happen by June 2021. Some of the state pharmacy councils have already started working towards this exercise, like for instance Delhi among others, Prof B Suresh, president, Pharmacy Council of India, told Pharmabiz.
The system was launched only to have all information of the qualified pharmacy professionals. All registered pharmacists in the country are required to fill their pharmacist registration details on the PCI website, noted the Council.
The database of pharmacists in India will be maintained on a live register. PRTS will help collect data on gender-wise, age-group wise, and education level-wise number of pharmacists in various states. It will also provide state-wise information on the employment status of pharmacists where they are working as community pharmacists, hospital pharmacists, or employed with the pharmaceutical industry, pharmacy colleges among others. However it is important to note here that only those pharmacists who are registered with the respective state pharmacy councils are only permitted to register with PRTS.
A qualified pharmacist can upload requisite details on the central web portal after uploading all his details with the online portal of the respective state pharmacy council. Moreover, as part of the authentication, PRTS only allows registration only after verification of details with the state council. If any discrepancy is found in the facts and figures given on the state and central council portals, the application of such pharmacists will not be successfully processed by PRTS. All state councils have to create their own online registries in order to link with the central registry. It will also help track status of pharmacists working abroad whether they have renewed their registration or not. The move would bring in openness and allow integrity prevail .
Kaushik Devaraju, president, Karnataka Registered Pharmacists Association, said “As India is moving towards a digital movement, the step taken by the PCI for implementation of PRTS is laudable. This will provide quality pharmacy service to the public by a qualified pharmacist only. It will also improve the status of pharmacy profession in India. We hope this new digital initiative will be implemented strictly for development of profession of pharmacy.”
According to Dr. Suresh Saravdekar, vice chairman, hospital pharmacy division, Indian Pharmaceutical Association, the challenge under this PRTS, is that individual pharmacists need to register on the digital platform which needs authentication of data from respective state pharmacy council data where they had already registered. It would have been better if the PCI collects all the data from all state pharmacy councils and took on the onus to collate the database at PCI website. State councils have already database at state. Once again asking them to enter in to central PRTS, or authenticate will be too much of work and duplication of work for them.
