by Linda Straker
- Cabinet meeting of 29 August 2022 approved reconstitution of Pharmacy Council
- Council will have a lifespan of 2 years
- Pharmacy Act approved by Parliament in 1987
The Dickon Mitchell administration has reconstituted the Pharmacy Council. According to the Pharmacy Act, the chairperson shall be elected from among its members. The Council will have a lifespan of 2 years.
According to a notice published in the 16 September 2022 edition of the Government Gazette, the Cabinet at its meeting on 29 August 2022, approved the reconstitution of the Pharmacy Council for a period of 2 years with effect from 1 September 2022.
The members of the council are
- Dr Shawn Charles – Chief Medical Officer (Acting)
- Camille Isaac – Chief Pharmacist (Acting)
- Dr Josan Braithwaite – Medical Practitioner
- Lydia George – Medical Practitioner, Grenada Medical Association
- Kelvin S Dragon – Pharmacy Fraternity
- Jeanessa Robertson-Douglas – Pharmacy Fraternity
- Cedric Mitchell – Grenada Chamber of Industry and Commerce
- Alison Haynes – Ministry of Agriculture
- Laren K Simon – Ministry of Legal Affairs.
The functions of the Council according to the Pharmacy Act which was approved by the Houses of Parliament in 1987, shall be to decide matters relating to the registration of pharmacists; to ensure the maintenance of high standards of practice and conduct of pharmacists and to set standards for the education and training of pharmacists.
The Council shall also decide on matters relating to the appointment and registration of persons as authorised sellers of poisons, in accordance with the regulations; to make recommendations to the Minister with a view to achieving compliance with the requirements of this Act; to decide matters relating to the registration of pharmacies; to decide matters relating to the making of regulations under Section 27, and to perform the duties that it is required by this Act to perform.
Section 27 provides the Council with the power to make regulations to regulate the pharmaceutical sector. These include the manner in which disciplinary proceedings or inquiries are to be instituted and conducted among members of the Pharmacy fraternity; prescribing the qualifications required for registration as a pharmacist; specifying the substances that are poisons for the purposes of the Pharmacy Act.
It may also make regulations providing for the appointment and registration of authorized sellers of poisons and regulating the import of pharmaceuticals. It will also have the power to make regulations with respect to the compounding, dispensing, labelling, storing, packaging, and sale of drugs and poisons, the containers in which poisons are to be stored, sold, or supplied, the addition of specified ingredients to poisons for the purpose of rendering them readily distinguishable as poisons; providing, in respect of sellers of poisons, for the keeping and examination of books and records and the making of reports; and prescribing places, other than pharmacies, where poisons may be stored for sale or may be sold by retail.
