Pharmacists Set Agenda for President-elect, Tinubu
Pharmacists under the aegis of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) Lagos branch, have advised the incoming government to give quality healthcare delivery in the country a priority in its agenda.
Worried by the challenges in the healthcare sector of the nation’s economy, the Lagos PSN, at its 2023 Annual General Meeting(AGM) emphasised on the need to build an effective and functional health delivery system, saying it is ‘’imperative in this new order.’’
In a document signed by the Chairman, Gbolagade Iyiola, the PSN Lagos called on the President-elect to critically appraise the Charter of Demands of PSN submitted to him since November 2023, where it highlighted some demands including a change in the procedure in appointing the Ministers of Health and Heads of MDAs in the health sector and better funding.
The body demanded “improvement on the welfare of public sector Pharmacists and the generality of health workers in our country”, to stem the tide of brain drain as well as instituting an “Executive Bill for a Bank of Health.”
It recommended for “Universal Health Coverage and proper implementation of National Health Insurance Authority Act 2022, also enabling Local manufacturing of drugs and active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API), excipients and related matters.”
While congratulating the president–elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the PSN recalled how his intervention enabled positive changes in the Lagos State Ministry of Health in 2002 and appealed for a re-enactment in the new federal dispensation.
“Pharmacists in Lagos State remember his interventions while he was helmsman in his first tenure as governor between 1999 and 2003. In 2002, the Lagos State Ministry of Health had come up with a policy to privatise public sector pharmacies in all its hospitals canvassing a position that there will be no active need for pharmacy practice in the public service in Lagos state.
“Opinion leaders in pharmacy had to draw the attention of then governor Bola Tinubu to this heresy before a truce could be reached between the Lagos state government, PSN and Pharmacy Council of Nigeria(PCN) in that dispensation.
“It becomes imperative in this new order that confronts the nation that the foundation laying years of our current democracy where the federal government placed premium on the appointment of health administrators in key health portfolios including; ministerial appointments which were ceded to Prof. A. B. C. Nwosu and then Prof. Eyitayo Lambo, a health economist who superintended the federal ministry of health were widely accepted as the most fruitful and impactful years in the health sector in contemporary times’’.
It urged the government to treat potential drug security/shortages as national or existential risks and provide funding options, and grants to support or facilitate University-Industry collaborations.
The professional body also drew the attention of the incoming government to the vast potentials of the pharmaceutical sector, declaring that: “PSN contribute significantly to the real sector and ultimately National GDP through development of a petrochemical industry that paves way for true industrial revolution that will reposition Nigeria as the hub for new Pharmaceutical investments.
“The PSN Lagos State will be the fulcrum to engineer a development that makes Lagos, the centre of excellence and the favourite destination in pharmaceuticals for Africa.’’
“We firmly insisted on better regulatory techniques as we strategised to work with PCN, and other strategic regulators. The voice of PSN Lagos state branch rang out loud for the enactment of pharmacy council of Nigeria Act 2022.
“With divine enablement and a new government set to be inaugurated by May 29, 2023, we remain optimistic and hopeful that a new agenda will be set by PCN for regular monitoring and enforcement operations towards installing a practice landscape that befits our practice.’’
Drawing also from the its Colloquium some months ago, PSN Lagos charged the government to “mandate collaborations with relevant government MDAs like NAFDAC and PCN to create Centres of Excellence to support Academia-Industry relations in the quest for production of high quality and globally acceptable APIs and other excipients as well as Create tax credits for companies that sponsor Research and Development in Universities, Institutes etc.”
Similarly, it tasked the government to “Compel through fundamental restructuring the necessary template that allows our Universities to develop entrepreneurial mind set and framework.”
