[Photo: FILE]
The shortage of public sector pharmacists may not simply be a matter of missing qualifications.
Public consultations on the Pharmacy Act review are raising questions over whether low pay, poor working conditions, and resource shortages are driving professionals away from public health facilities.
While the Health Ministry cites a high vacancy rate, pharmacist Joshila Lal points out that Fiji produces 25 to 30 pharmacy graduates each year, suggesting retention is the real issue.¤
“When people say shortage of pharmacists, it really bothers me. I think if government were to look at where the priority is and where equity in access to health care should lie, then the public sector is a good area to first focus on.”
Lal says shortage claims should not be used to justify hiring overseas pharmacists before addressing conditions for local professionals.
She says that in terms of just accepting foreign pharmacists, we need to have a protectionist approach where we need to go local first and not just go with the propaganda that there is a shortage of pharmacists.
Pharmacy student Prashant Rohit says these working conditions are already impacting daily operations in public hospitals.
“It’s not a pharmacist issue. It’s not an issue with the students. It’s an issue with the conditions that we are working in.”
Submissions call for minimum pay standards and capped working hours, warning that fatigue poses a serious risk to patient safety.
The feedback puts a critical question at the heart of the Pharmacy Act review: whether Fiji needs more pharmacists, or needs to do more to keep the ones it has.
