Pharmacy software in Faisalabad

Faisalabad's medicine markets

Faisalabad's old city has a medicine market of its own. Of the eight bazaars that run out from the Clock Tower, Chiniot Bazaar is known for allopathic and homoeopathic medicine stores, alongside its cloth and blanket shops and its poultry-feed wholesalers. Karkhana Bazaar, another of the eight, is known for herbal medicines. Both are joined to the rest of the old city by the circular Gol Bazaar, according to the city's Wikipedia article.

That puts Faisalabad's medical stores in an unusual mix. A store in the old city may stock branded allopathic medicine, a shelf of homoeopathic remedies and herbal products side by side, and serve both walk-in patients and smaller stores from the surrounding towns that buy in quantity. Stores in newer parts of the city serve the families around them, many of whom come back every month for the same prescription.

The work is the same everywhere. A patient asks for a brand that is out of stock and needs a substitute with the same salt. A strip is opened and sold tablet by tablet. Boxes reach their expiry date at the back of the shelf. Controlled medicines need a register with the patient and the doctor, and insulin and vaccines need a fridge kept between two and eight degrees.

Pharmacies are licensed and inspected under drug laws; our DRAP glossary entry explains the federal side. Power for the city comes from FESCO, and a counter that can bill through an outage matters when a patient is waiting.

A day at a Faisalabad medical store

At the counter. A patient asks for a brand you do not have. Search by the salt and Nafaa lists the other brands with the same salt, their price and how many are on your shelf. Sell a loose tablet, a strip or a box from the same medicine, each at its own price.

Prescriptions. Record the prescription with the doctor's name, dispense it in full or in part, and refill it next month without typing it again. If you have recorded that two salts clash, a prescription with both shows a warning before it is given. The doctors' list shows whose prescriptions you fill and how many.

Controlled medicines. Narcotic and psychotropic sales go into the register with the patient and the doctor as they are billed, so the register is never written up at the end of the week.

The fridge. Record the fridge temperature twice a day. Readings outside two to eight degrees are marked, and the log is ready if an inspector asks.

Expiry. Stock is kept by batch with its expiry date. Items inside 30 and 90 days are flagged with the money at stake, and a near-expiry batch can go back to the distributor it came from or be written off.

Regular patients. Families who pay monthly keep a khata, with reminders on WhatsApp.

Questions from Faisalabad medical stores

I keep homoeopathic and herbal products as well. Can they go in the same stock?

Yes. They are products like any other, with their own categories, so they sell from the same counter and show separately in reports.

Smaller stores from nearby towns buy from me in quantity. Can they have credit?

Yes. Each store can be a customer with a khata, so bills and payments stay on its account with reminders on WhatsApp.

Can I sell one tablet from a strip?

Yes. A medicine can be sold by the tablet, the strip or the box, each with its own price, and stock is counted correctly.

What happens during an outage?

Billing continues on the device without internet and syncs when the connection is back.

Can I return a near-expiry batch to the distributor?

Yes. Pick the batch from the expiring list and send it back to the distributor it came from, or write it off if he will not take it. Either way the stock and the money at stake update, so the expiring list stays honest and you can see how much expiry cost you this month.

Where can I read more?

See the pharmacy page, our guide to pharmacy expiry management and Faisalabad.