Why you need to get your chemist right

There is a moment in every illness that receives far less attention than it should. The consultation is over. Someone has just been told what is wrong with them, or with someone they love, and the mind is still trying to catch up. A prescription is folded into a bag or slipped into a pocket, and then comes the quieter part of the journey, when the patient must obtain the medicine, understand the dose and know what to do next.

For generations, this meant walking to the neighbourhood chemist. Today, that familiar experience is being transformed. A prescription can arrive digitally, medicines can be ordered on a phone and delivered to a home hundreds of kilometres away, refills can be remembered before they are missed, and a patient in a small town can access medicines that once required a journey to a larger city.

India’s pharmacy revolution is giving the common man unprecedented access to medicines, but access alone is not enough. The way forward is to choose trusted, connected pharmacies that insist on prescriptions, dispense genuine medicines, maintain patient records, provide qualified guidance and remain connected to the patient’s larger journey of care. The right medicine, in the right dose, for the right duration and taken correctly, is what turns a doctor’s judgment into an actual outcome.

India has over 10 lakh retail chemists, most of them small and independent, and the experience at the counter can vary widely. Unfortunately, self-medication persists. Refills may happen with little scrutiny, and a qualified pharmacist is not always present to answer questions. The consequent risks that these issues pose are manifold.

I have written before in this column about antimicrobial resistance and the threat it poses to decades of medical progress. That threat can begin in the most ordinary way when someone feels better, stops an antibiotic too soon and keeps the remaining tablets for another day. A trusted pharmacy can help prevent that mistake through a simple explanation offered at the right moment. This is why we must choose a pharmacy with the same care as a doctor or a hospital. The nearest or quickest is not always the safest. Trust comes from knowing that the medicine is genuine, the prescription is followed and the guidance is qualified.

India is now building the infrastructure to make this widely possible. The Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission has created more than 90 crore ABHA accounts and is building a consent-based digital health ecosystem in which a patient’s records can travel securely across the continuum of care. Electronic prescriptions can reduce errors caused by illegible handwriting, while connected records, refill reminders and traceable supply chains can make medicine use safer and more reliable. The real transformation will come when these safeguards extend beyond large networks and become part of the everyday pharmacy experience across India.

Decades ago, this ethos led us to build a pharmacy network, rooted in the belief that a hospital’s responsibility cannot end when a patient leaves the consulting room. Today, there are over 7,400 stores across 1,200 cities and towns, serving more than seven crore registered users. We reach 19,000 pin codes, with quick delivery in major metros, while connecting users to virtual consultations, diagnostics, chronic condition management and customised insurance solutions. Nearly one lakh medicine deliveries reach homes every day and one crore families are connected. Almost 50 per cent of Indians live within 40 minutes of an Apollo Pharmacy.

Now that India has the medicines, the digital backbone and the reach, our collective responsibility is to bring them together so that every pharmacy becomes a trusted link between prescription and recovery—bridging that distance not through medicine alone, but through the trust that travels with it.

Dr Preetha Reddy is Executive Vice Chairperson of Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Limited.