KOCHI: In another path-breaking venture,the Kerala State Co-operative Consumers’ Federation (Consumerfed) is going to launch a pharmacy college. The Consumerfed will acquire the Priyadarshini Co-operative hospital at Kechery in Thrissur for this purpose.Consumerfed authorities said that procedures have been finalised in this regard.“The acquisition procedures will be completed by this month. We are planning to start a full-fledged pharmacy college by the end of this year,” said Riji G Nair, Managing Director, Consumerfed. Riji said that the idea to begin a pharmacy college sprouted when the Consumefed started facing severe shortage of pharmacists in one of its enterprises, Neethi medical stores. “The Consumerfed’s target is to start 1,000 Neethi medical stores throughout the state. As we have 999 panchayats, our concept is to offer one medical store for each panchayat. But we could not procure enough pharmacists for our stores. Besides the number of registered pharmacists is comparatively less in the state. Hence we decided to start a college to fulfil the requirements,” said Riji. Joy Thomas, President, Consumerfed said that the government’s support to its initiative was immense. “In the state budget, a creditable amount has been earmarked for starting the pharmacy college,” he said.Though the efforts to start the college started during the last government’s tenure, the Consumerfed could get the green signal only during this government’s period.In its new initiative, Consumerfed will pay `6 crore to the share holders of Priyadarshini Co-operative hospital. “The hospital was built after raising huge amount by way of shares. It became completely defunct in 2010. As the hospital was steeped in debt, it could not raise money to pay back the shareholders. Hence taking over of the hospital will prove a boon for them,” Riji said. Apart from the legal process to start a college, all is settled, he added.
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