LLight rises from the east
When I answered my ringing phone, on the other end was Süleyman ACAR, the Secretary General of the Urfa Chamber of Pharmacists. He was asking me to give compounding training to pharmacists in Urfa as part of a KOSGEB-supported non-prescription products project. At the end of a short conversation, I was very excited. However, I said, ‘Your project is truly commendable, but compounded medicines are not non-prescription products, so I will not be able to help you…’ After a short pause, Mr. Süleyman said, ‘That might be the project’s name, but ultimately we want to hear about compounding from you as well.’ For the first time, our nearly forgotten art was being given importance by a Chamber of Pharmacists. Without hesitation, I said ‘I’m coming’… and that is how I got to know the Urfa Chamber of Pharmacists… As part of this project, I traveled to Urfa—where I had never been before—a total of 5 times in a short period. I made wonderful friendships. As I listened to the Urfa pharmacists’ determination to learn, their collective working discipline, and their chamber-led projects contributing to pharmacy economics, my admiration and a bit of astonishment grew. With an effort and perseverance that should serve as an example to every Chamber of Pharmacists, they worked with the will to overcome every obstacle they encountered. It was an effort reminiscent of Rumi’s words: “How beautifully snowflakes show that it is possible to travel without harming one another.” The pharmacists of Urfa had achieved this.
During our last meeting, there was a bit of sadness about parting from the wonderful people of this beautiful city. While saying goodbye to them, I said, ‘Our pharmacies are not logistical distribution centers that simply take medicine from the shelf and hand it to patients. We, the pharmacists of this country, are also craftsmen who manufacture medicine. If you can bring the physicians who write the prescriptions into this hall and give me the opportunity to explain these formulas and the importance of compounding to them as well, only then will this work of ours reach its true goal.’
To be honest, this was merely a wish. In our country, where physician-pharmacist communication is difficult, if not impossible, I knew how hard it would be for these words, which spilled spontaneously from my mouth, to come true.
One day, another phone call came from Urfa. This time, on the phone was my dear colleague Pharm. Ali ERDEM. ‘Good news, brother…’ he said, ‘we have created an environment for you to explain compounding to Family Health Physicians in Urfa. Will you come?’ Come? I practically flew… they had achieved this too. I must confess that for the first time, I was nervous during a presentation. In the hall, there were 50 Pharmacists and 60 Family Physicians receiving training within the scope of the project. In summary, I explained to the physicians: if they cannot find a suitable therapeutic option in the commercial pharmaceutical sector, when the patient’s characteristics require an alternative approach, or when the medication needs to be prescribed in large quantities, Compounded Formulations would be the solution; prescribing them would increase patients’ treatment quality and make a significant contribution to the national economy; and that we, AS THE PHARMACISTS OF THIS COUNTRY, possess the knowledge and equipment to fulfill our duty in extraordinary situations or in the production of medicines facing shortages.
This presentation, where Physicians and Pharmacists were together for the first time and listened with great interest, made me indescribably happy. The admission of many physician colleagues who came up after the meeting and said, ‘We heard the word magistral for the first time from you,’ also revealed the truth of how negligent and inadequate we have been in explaining our art.
Since that day, I have been answering questions regarding Compounded Formulas from many physician colleagues in Urfa with great pleasure.
Urfa is the hope of our profession. It is its rising light. I follow their work with great respect. That is why, as I began my article, “Ex oriente lux“Light rises from the east,” I said. Let us not just watch this light, but come, let us multiply and spread it. Let us spread it so that the darkness over our profession may be enlightened.
Dear President Mahmut DOLAP, Osman GÜMÜŞ, Süleyman ACAR, Ali ERDEM, Servet KILINÇ, Ahmet ÇETİNER, Ahmet KARAKUŞ, Fevzi DEMİRKOL, Hacer AĞAÇ ÖZÜN, Bekir CAYNAK, Efe HOŞGÖZ, Medet ABBASOĞLU… and all my friends whose names I could not write… I greet you with love and respect…
Spec. Pharm. Ahmet Nezihi Pekcan
Pekcan Pharmacy – Konya
[email protected]
Tel: (332) 3520657http://www.majistralformul.com/
