The All Nagaland Pharmacy Association (ANPA) has on Friday made a fervent appeal to the state government through the department of Health and Family Welfare (HFW) to reconsider its policy mandating the appointment of registered pharmacists in all pharmacies in the state, citing that there is acute shortage of qualified personnel in the state.
Addressing a press conference at the Crescent International Hotel, Kohima, ANPA general secretary Limayanger Jamir said Nagaland is the only state in India without a pharmacy institute which has resulted in shortage of qualified pharmacists to manage the 1157 pharmacies registered across Nagaland. He mentioned that there are only 278 registered pharmacists in the state.
The ANPA was formed in March 2025 following the government’s order enforcing the presence of registered pharmacists in al pharmacies in the state.
ANPA is of the view that enforcement of the policy without flexibility could hamper public healthcare system.
Jamir said most pharmacies have been unable to recruit registered pharmacists due to shortage of qualified individuals. Owing to the situation, ANPA underscored the need for the state government to engage with stakeholders to work out a practical plan. The association observes that license cancellations under current conditions could severely impact public access to essential medicines.
Jamir said pharmacy licenses were in the past issued by the HFW, which provided names and registration numbers of pharmacists to licensees, and renewals were done every five years. This practice continued till early 2024. He said that many license holders were unaware of the legal implications when their licenses were issued as most of them relied on experience with medical professionals, rather than formal qualifications.
He said ANPA had submitted a representation to the Principal Director and the Controlling and Licensing Authority, Commissioner and Secretary HFW as well as the Chief Minister, requesting a reasonable extension of time for compliance, but received no response. Appointments to meet with the medical minister and the state Chief Secretary also resulted in blank, the ANPA official added.
ANPA questioned the inconsistency in standards, maintaining that in government health centres, nurses with only three months of training were authorised to dispense medicines while pharmacies were being ordered to shut down owing to shortage of paper-qualified personnel.
Download Nagaland Tribune app on Google Play
ANPA officials said that they had filed RTI applications at the HFW directorate in May last seeking answers to pertaining issues but they are yet to receive any reply.
They observed that abrupt cancellation of licenses has created confusion and affected livelihoods of many families.
ANPA president Zhapuvilie stated that the association does not oppose the government policy but that the state lacks the infrastructure to enforce it effectively.
“ANPA is not against the department or the policy in question, but we are of the opinion that Nagaland is not equipped to implement this health policy at present. We are hopeful that the department would come up with some workable arrangements till such time our state will have pharmacy institutes and sufficient qualified manpower to provide healthcare to the general public unhindered,” he said.
In the meantime, ANPA appealed to the state government to allow them to operate their pharmacies till such time the department comes up with a concrete health policy that is relevant to the state and that the public healthcare is not compromised.
“We assure that on our part, all our efforts both individually and on an organizational capacity shall be made to employ qualified registered pharmacists,” the association official added.
