KARACHI:The Aga Khan University Hospital’s Pharmacy Trainee Programme has received the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) accreditation for International Pharmacy Practice Residency Programmes (IPPR), becoming the first academic medical centre, the third international hospital and the first in Pakistan, to receive the prestigious three-year accreditation.
This accreditation helps raise the standards of training for pharmacists, who offer critical services in patient care, said a handout issued on Wednesday. With this accreditation, the AKUH Pharmacy Residency Programme has become an internationally recognized training site and will serve as a role model for producing exemplary practitioners, who will positively impact the practice of pharmacy in Pakistan.
As part of the accreditation process, AKUH’s pharmacy traineeship programme complied with stringent competencies, educational goals, and objectives, including more than 100 ASHP residency learning objectives, and more than 200 measurable elements.
Congratulating the pharmacy team on achieving this milestone, Dr Farhat Abbas, Interim CEO AKU Health Services Pakistan, said, “the ASHP accreditation is a testament to the fact that our patients are at the forefront of everything we do,” adding that, “this accreditation is not only a feather in the cap for AKUH but also for the country.”
Dr Adil Haider, Dean Medical College, AKU, said, “By getting ASHP-accredited, AKU has demonstrated its continuing commitment to advancing pharmacy practice and providing quality patient care.”
Syed Shamim Raza, Director of Pharmacy Services, Pakistan, said, “We set ourselves the goal to develop our pharmacy practices further to fulfill AKUH’s vision of raising the standards of healthcare in Pakistan and we achieved this goal through the ASHP accreditation which marks us as a world-class institution for hospital pharmacy practice and training, ensuring that our patients benefit from international best practices of pharmacy.”