Student fears amid pricing regulation

Cheryllyn Dudley MP

The African Christian Democratic Party has expressed concern that the new pricing regulations for pharmacies are affecting aspiring pharmacists. This follows a meeting of the health portfolio committee in parliament yesterday, in which the health department said pharmacy-student-concerns come from a faulty mindset.

“Final year pharmacy students are finding it difficult to secure internships for next year.” said Cheryllyn Dudley, ACDP MP and spokesperson on health matters: “The ACDP calls on government to ensure that students access internships. And we recommend that students, experiencing these problems, contact the department.”

“Some students say the private sector is reluctant to hire interns because of the uncertain future of pharmacies. They also believe their concerns are directly related to the negative impact of the new dispensing regulations.”

“Students say they fear that ‘pharmacy’ is a dying trade in South Africa and most foresee a dramatic increase in the number of pharmacists leaving the country.”

The department envisages a future with no retail pharmacies.

And the new model sees pharmacists operating exclusively from doctors’ rooms.

“The health department says it’ becoming a different profession altogether. And pharmacy students can now look forward to being paid for what they know and not what they sell’. Officials attribute student fears to a faulty mindset”

“Regulations have not yet produced the desired result and the public is suffering the consequences. Now more regulations are coming into being to stop pharmacies from charging fees. This, of course, is social engineering where the quest for regulating a perfect society demands more and more control. In time it will strangle the life out of the very society it tries to perfect”