Be it education, agriculture, police, or health departments, posts lying vacant on a large scale in departments in Haryana is a matter of serious concern requiring the state government to fill the posts with further delay to ensure the smooth departmental functioning. Likewise, more than one-third posts of pharmacists are lying vacant in the state adversely affecting the working of the health institutions and adding to the woes of the patients. An acute shortage of pharmacists in Haryana also has affected the treatment of patients, the distribution of medicines, and the functioning of health institutions. The department has not been able to fill the vacant posts for a long time which is the need of the hour. Ambala, the home district of the Health Minister Anil Vij emerges on the top with 51 vacant posts of pharmacist followed by Sirsa, Karnal, Narnaul, Yamunanagar and Bhiwani with 45, 43, 37, 34, and 31 vacant posts in the state.
It is pertinent to mention that out of the total sanctioned 1085 posts, only 703 are filled while 382 posts are vacant. Thus, 35 percent of pharmacists in the state are vacant and the seriousness of the situation is evident from the figures. It has also come to light that the posts to be filled on promotional patterns are lying vacant for a long time which resulted in increased problems for all. The information received has revealed that 25 percent of the total posts are reserved to be filled on the basis of promotion. But for some time, MPHW and Lab Technicians have not taken an interest in promotion due to which these posts are now vacant and the government is not conducting recruitment on vacant promotion posts. Earlier, the Haryana Staff Selection Commission (HSSC) had invited applications for recruitment to the posts of 108 pharmacists, but the matter became sub-judice which made the HSSC withdraw this recruitment.
Vinod Dalal, the President of the Association of Government Pharmacists, said that the vacant posts should be filled immediately without any further delay. It has also been revealed that due to a shortage of pharmacists in some hospitals, medicines are being distributed by other personnel, which is also a violation of the Drug Act. ‹›Deploying pharmacists in deputations is not the permanent solution of the problem to ensure the smooth functioning of the departments. However, a policy should be framed by the government to fill these posts so that the shortage of pharmacists can be removed as soon as possible. It has also come to light that many types of work are being taken from pharmacists. There are rarely doctors in primary health centres in rural areas, there only pharmacists are looking after the work of treatment of patients and distribution and pretreatment of medicines›, he added.
It also came to fore that due to an acute shortage of doctors in the state, the pharmacists are forced to treat the patients which is not fair. Apart from this, consumption of medicines, monitoring of medicine stock, first aid, and treatment of patients are also being done. In health centres and government hospitals where there are no pharmacists, the work is being done by deputing staff on deputation from other health centres. Recently, the Haryana government has increased the pay scale of pharmacy officers working in various state government institutions. Pharmacy officers will now get increased pay from Rs 35400 (Pay Band 6) to Rs 39900 (Pay Band 6A). The Association of Government Pharmacists had been struggling for a long time for pay band 7 in the pharmacy class, for which the pharmacy officers of the state had gone on strike for nine days in 2019.
The strike was called off after a strong assurance from Health Minister Anil Vij. The pharmacists› association thinks that in the future the government should fulfill this category by giving them Band 7 and promotion channels on pending demand.
