Just after hearing the news of Earthquake on April 25, i
tried to rush to Nepal to serve the country as a true citizen of Nepal. The
unpreparedness may lead to worthless effort so, i coordinated with many Nepali
groups studying in India and my friends and relatives from USA and India
supported my idea to help Nepal. Each day during our preparation, i used to
receive many request for medicines essential at that time. After collecting
some funds i took the medicines worth of 1 lakhs from Mumbai to Nepal.
Even after a week their was shortage of medicine in
Nepali market. Being a Pharmacist i had carried all the NSAIDs, Proton Pump
Inhibitors, third generation cephalosporins, macrolid antibiotics, anti
emetics, water purifying tablets & liquids and various kinds of
Injectables. During the relief camps, i felt the crucial role of a Pharmacist
in delivering medicines in such condition. In remote villages we didn't have
sufficient alternatives so with our limited resources we had to serve the
hundreds of public suffered from earthquake and its consequences. We saw the
people were mainly suffered from infections, Infection of urinary tract,
Respiratory system, eyes and some of them from diarrhea and typhoid.
Those health post in the remote villages were unable to
fulfill the demands of the poor patients who can't afford the expensive
medicines from their own. Fortunately we were able to serve more than
2000 patients during our health camp and donated those medicines we carried
with us to the respective health post. The remaining medicine which our
team Nepalese in
bangalore had was donated to Teaching Hospital. The reputation of
Nepal, Teaching Hospital too was lacking some of the medicines which were
immediately used those medicines after donation. During the health camp, we
sought help from Mr. Yubraj Bhusal, Rabin, Dr. Ajay chandra, Bijay koirala
and Mr. Amrit Khanal and they showed their readiness in those
situation.
After the earthquake and aftershocks Nepal lose more than 8000
precious lives. This incident has to be commemorated and should be taken as
turning point in our nation’s
readiness for public health emergencies, including those that result from
foreign blockade or from natural causes like a natural disasters and disease
outbreak.
We all know that the country is
investing very less amount of its budget in Health care, but being a citizen of
Nepal and as a health professionals its the duty of Pharmacist to play a vital
role to prepare themselves in need. As a pharmacist we should be prepare
ourselves to handle all the medicinal requirements specially in the situation
of Natural disasters and foreign blockade. We should have sufficient medicinal
database and inventory management and the circle of all pharmacist
who are willing to serve the country in need. The Pharmacist preparedness may
ensure the proper health facilities to the people and
the availability of medicines to public. The pharmacist should able
to pressurize the Nepali government to prepare the country in the situation
like today.
A well-aware pharmacist only serve the
country and helps to gain the goodwill of the profession. The preparedness and
the faithfulness towards profession will definitely help to boost the
quality of health of Nepali. The decentralized and proper managed team to
counteract against any national disasters will help to save many lives and
pharmacist can a crucial role.
-Kabin Maleku
Tags:
Pharmacist voice