Pharm. (Mrs.)
Adeniran Bolanle F.O., Chairman, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Lagos
State Branch, has made a case for appointment of a Presidential Committee on
Drug Distribution to sanitise the chaotic drug channels in the country.
Speaking at the opening
ceremony of the PSN Scientific Week at the Pharmacy Villa, Ogudi GRA, Lagos on
August 22, 2019, Pharm. Adeniran said the call had become necessary because
drug distribution had for long continued to be grounded in vacillations and had
been at the whims and caprices of the vicissitudes of life which have almost
snuffed life out of it.
She said that the reality
today is that “we have made little or no progress in the quest to sanitise our
distribution channels.”
“If we decide to call a
spade a spade, the Federal Government actually needs to declare a state of
emergency in the drug distribution bracket of our health sector to redress the
unending cycle of unproductively.
“Even when the Pharmacy
profession is famous as probably the most regulated endeavour in the land with
legislations that are as old as over 132 years
Adeniran noted that under
Obasanjo Presidency, a Presidential Committee was set up with requisite
stakeholders to redress the ills of drug distribution with some seriousness.
She said the committee
which was active till Jonathan era finally gave birth to the popular National
Drug Distribution Guidelines (NDDG) with major recommendations to open new
vista in drug wholesaling while emphasising an urgent need to seal all existing
Open Drug Markets (ODM) in line with existing Acts of Parliament.
She lamented that four
years after the first deadline was first announced by Mr. Linus Awute, the then
Permanent Secretary and Acting Head of the Federal Ministry of Health in 2015,
government has not been decisive on the closure of the obnoxious drug markets.
“In fact, the operations
at the deadly Onitsha Head Bridge market are on record to have resisted
monitoring and control by violently attacking a team of NAFDAC inspectors who
routinely visited that market on an enforcement drive, without any accruing
sanctions till now.
“One of the sore points in
drug distribution remains Patent Medicine Vending in our clime. While we
appreciate that there is an obvious dearth in all health services including
pharma services and manpower, it appears as usual that the Federal Ministry of
Health (FMOH) through the powers that be is only interested in tackling the
challenges in pharma sector probably because of the commercial propensities
associated with pharmacy practice,” she said.
Adeniran explained that
Patent Medicine Vending which was meant to be a stop gap mechanism in service
rendition to people in underserved areas has become a huge albatross on the
neck of Practising Pharmacists because it has become an endless means of easy
access to all categories of medicines from OTCs to PIMs, POMs as well as
dangerous drugs and narcotics which are never monitored because of severe
logistics challenges the regulatory agencies suffer.
She said that ordinarily
one would imagine that because healthcare is a globally inclined endeavour
which promotes best practices, the norm would be to structure healthcare and
pharmacy practice in particular on platforms obtainable in the global arena.
“What we see more and more
is that NGOs and International donors continue to encourage scenarios whereby
more abuses are perpetrated against the very people they set out to assist.
This is because every measure that is focused on allowing persons other than
Registered Pharmacists and other trained personnel like Pharmacy Technicians to
dabble into the professional responsibility of sales and dispensing of drugs
fundamentally jeopardises the aims and objectives of the National Drug Policy
2005 which is inclined to delivering safe, efficacious and affordable drugs to
the people of Nigeria.
“It is therefore very
imperative to call on the Federal Government that the reforms we need with
Patent Medicine Vending must focus on allowing Pharmacy Technicians who are part
of global pharmacy workforce to take care of Patent Medicine Vending in rural
communities or other areas where service delivery is lacking in pharmaceutical
services,” the Lagos PSN chairman said.
She attributed the poor
state of affairs to obvious weak regulation as every effort aimed at ensuring a
free for all disposition in the sales of drugs by people who do not have formal
training as professionals or sub-professional cadre will only serve to boost
the worsening incident of easy access to drugs with dire consequences which
boost drug misuse and abuse as well as drug faking which all continue to
combine to devalue the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and potentials of the
pharmaceutical sector in the quest for national development and growth.
Consequently, the PSN
Lagos State boss called for a Presidential Committee on Drug Distribution which
would be headed by an experienced Registered Pharmacist not encumbered by the
bureaucracy of the public service.
The proposed committee,
she said, should have representatives of PCN, NAFDAC, PSN, ACPN, PMG-MAN,
NIROPHARM and a key official of the Presidency not below the rank of a
Director.
Pharm. Adeniran said, “We
responsibly solicit that such a committee which shall have a timeline and Terms
of Reference including:
.Enforcement of the spirit
of NDDG with particular emphasis on strategies to attain closure of drug
markets and achieve the movement to Co-ordinated Wholesale Centres (CWC) now
approved in 7 city centres of Nigeria.
.Work out a sustainable
reform in the business of Patent Medicine Vending by paying particular
attention to the strict applicability of statutes in the enforcement window
currently available in the pharmaceutical sector.
Ensuring the passage of
Pharmacy Bill 2017 into an Act of Parliament that will rescue Pharmacy Practice
which continues to sink albeit rapidly with the probability of complete
extinction in Nigeria if the negative drift is not curbed soon enough.”
Pharm. Adeniran also
called for the setting up of Workable Structures for Sustainable Healthcare
System in Nigeria.
“In the last few months it
has become very obvious that the JOHESU has become the major arrowhead in all
efforts to restore dignity and pride to health workers apart from doctors
through its unrelenting agitations.
“This fact is amplified by
the reality that it is only JOHESU that has taken up the legal challenge of
meeting the very desperate Medical and Dental Consultants Association of
Nigeria (MDCAN) (through a representation by a SAN), which is canvassing a
strange concept of healthcare at Federal High Court, Abuja where it is
attempting to be bestowed with professional rights and privileges to regulate
Pharmacy practice and other health services contrary to the enabling Acts of
Parliament as appropriate for the different professions in Nigeria.
“JOHESU had endured a
tortuous Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) process which ordinarily should
last for 12 weeks or 6 months. The gains at the ADR were very significant apart
from the inability to secure a meaningful budget for the adjustment of CONHESS
scale as was done for CONMESS scale since 2014, whopping 5 years and 8 months
ago.
“We of PSN Lagos are aware
that the JOHESU has been engaging the FMOH and we call on the FMOH to
immediately release the Specialised Committee of Stakeholders including the
representatives of JOHESU which was promised at its interaction with JOHESU
leaders almost one month ago,” Adeniran said.
“For the records, we urge
the FMOH to fast-track the activities of this committee which will deal with
challenges including Central Internship Placement for all health professionals;
Payment of outstanding skipping allowances and related benefits for JOHESU
members; Implementation of report on payment of Specialist Allowances to
Pharmacists and other eligible health workers; Forwarding of memo to increase
retirement age of health workers from 60 - 65 years to the National Council of
Establishment, and Staff audit in all Federal Health Institutions (FHIs) to
pave way for the redress of under-employment of JOHESU members,” Pharm.
Adeniran further stated.
The Lagos PSN boss also
called on the Presidency to give the necessary go-ahead to the release of the
withheld salaries of JOHESU members in April and May 2018 as it was clearly a
selectively discriminatory act to persecute the health workers by wicked
personality cults loyal to only the self serving interests of the profession
they belong to in that dispensation.
She reminded the Federal
Government that doctors in JUTH and LUTH have proceeded on strike after the 2018
strike of JOHESU members without their salaries being seized. This is apart
from ASUU in the Education Sector which was not unduly punished by the
Minister-in-charge.
“We strongly urge
President Buhari to approve the estimated funds to actualise the adjustment of
CONHESS circular as was done for CONMESS by the National Salary, Income and
Wages Commission since 2017,” she said.
Pharm. Adeniran then urged
her colleagues to be wary of a delusional messianic complex which has ravaged
those in the profession, advising that only hard work, consistency and
diligence laden in prayers would deliver pharmacy profession from the forces
which have held it to ransom.
