Pharmacists are currently in demand, but the University of Technology does not have the space to train many more to meet the growing need both in the public and private health-care systems.

THE NUMBER of pharmacists available to work in the public sector is not likely to be increased within the short term, despite a pending dramatic reduction in Students' Loan Bureau (SLB) rates.

Prime Minister Bruce Golding announced in Parliament on Tuesday that the interest rates for some areas of study would be reduced from 12 per cent to four per cent, starting this year. The study of pharmacy is one of those critical areas for which the interest rates will be reduced.

However, Dr Eugenie Brown-Myrie, dean of the Faculty of Health and Applied Science at the University of Technology, told The Sunday Gleaner that there was no necessary correlation between the reduction in the rates and the number of persons who were admitted to study pharmacy at the institution.

According to Brown-Myrie, the institution does not have the space to accommodate the training of more pharmacists.

Brown-Myrie said that The University of Technology (UTech), which is the largest trainer of pharmacists, has the capacity to train in the region of 60 to 75 students per year.

"We were steady at 60 for a number of years. Our intake last year though, was 75, which has pushed us to the limit in terms of classroom and laboratory space," Brown-Myrie said.

She added: "We have many, many applications and many qualified persons, but we do not have the space, so we can't expand.

"It would require of us to acquire additional space," Brown-Myrie said. "It would mean adding new buildings or acquiring new buildings somewhere outside of this campus, but we have absolutely no available space that we could move into at this time."

increasing the number of pharmacists

Health Minister Rudyard Spencer has said that he would be taking steps to increase the number of pharmacists in the public sector.

Up to press time yesterday, The Sunday Gleaner was unable to get figures from the Ministry of Health as to how many more pharmacists were needed in the public sector.

Currently, the Pharmacy Council of Jamaica has 1,200 persons on its books as having qualified as pharmacists.

However, the annual re-registration of pharmacists this year has so far captured 540 persons. Approximately 40 new persons enter the profession yearly, the Pharmacy Council has said, 95 per cent of whom are trained at the UTech.

Prime Minister Golding gave notice that the Government would be directing SLB funds into areas thought to be of national imperative. During his contribution to the Budget Debate last Tuesday, he revealed it was the intention of his administration to give special concession to students "pursuing studies in specific disciplines for which a chronic shortage exists in the public sector".

"I asked the Cabinet office to work with the various ministries to identify those skills that are in chronic short supply," the prime minister said. "Based on what they presented to me, we identified two ministries that are in critical need, and we are going to start with those. The Ministry of Health certainly, and the other one is the Ministry of Agriculture."

The Sunday Gleaner has been reliably informed that persons studying radiology and cadastral mapping would also benefit from the reduced SBL interest rates.

Daraine.Luton@gleanerjm.com