LAGOS/Nigeria: The Association of Hospital and Administrative Pharmacists of Nigeria (AHAPN) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to give speedy assent to the Pharmacy Council Bill of 2018.
The association made the call recently during a courtesy visit to the new President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa in his office in Lagos.
The association, led by its National Chairman, Dr Kingsley Amibor, called on the PSN President to pursue the signing of the Pharmacy Council Bill of 2018 into law by President Buhari.
“We urge you not to relent in pursuing aggressively, the signing of the Pharmacy Act of 2018 into law by the President, which will go a long way to curtail the numerous challenges confronting pharmacy practice in Nigeria, including the erratic drug distribution syndrome, incessant drug abuse especially among youths and infiltration of pharmacy practice by charlatans among others,” Dr Amibor said.
Dr Amibor also called for the release of Consultancy Circular for the fellowship programme of the West African Post Graduate College of Pharmacists and registration of AHAPN as a trade union, informing the PSN President that their members were being owed outstanding arrears including Call Duty Relativity arrears since 2014.
According to Dr Amibor, “Pharmacists and some other healthcare professionals are being owed payment of balance of April and May 2018 salaries, a fall out of the JOHESU led strike action of 2018, they told Mazi Ohuabunwa. Equally outstanding is the promotion arrears being owed our members over the years” and solicited the assistance of PSN in getting the government to pay these debts being owed their members.
The Association also sought the support of the society in their quest to adopt pharmaceutical care as their new brand of philosophy of practice.
According to the National Chairman, “We wish to remind you that globally, pharmaceutical care has replaced the traditional role of dispensing for which pharmacists have been identified with over the years. We are here to seek the support of PSN in our resolve to adopt pharmaceutical care as our philosophy of practice.”
Dr Amibor equally sought for the assistance of the PSN in facilitating their members’ participation in international conferences and appointment of their members as Chairmen of Medical Advisory Committees of Hospitals, since many of them were eminently qualified.
Also contributing, the immediate past National Chairman of the Association, Pharm. Martins Oyewole MAW informed the President that there is no uniformity in the implementation of the scheme of service as it relates to movement of pharmacists and other health care workers from the position of assistant director to deputy director and director.
He explained further that while some hospitals promote pharmacists from deputy director to director, others promote from assistant director to deputy director, without giving them the privilege of rising to the position of director.
Dr. Amibor thereafter intimated Mazi Ohuabunwa of the challenges confronting hospital and administrative pharmacy practice in Nigeria, one of which was stagnation of career progression and scale to scale promotion of their members.
“It might interest you to learn that some of our members are still being stagnated on CONHESS 13, despite several representations to government and chief medical directors of hospitals. Some others especially in federal institutions receive same scale promotion without any financial increment, which is against the extant laws of the civil service. We solicit your assistance in redressing this trend,” the national chairman said.
He also lamented the acute shortage of pharmacists in hospitals in the country, saying, “We are challenging the society to advocate for employment of more pharmacists by various governments to ease suffering encountered by patients in trying to access care in hospitals, especially state government hospitals. This will also facilitate provision of pharmaceutical care services to our teeming patients.”
Responding, the PSN President thanked the National Chairman and executives of AHAPN for the visit. He commended them for the award conferred on him, noting that of all the associations that have visited him since assumption of office, AHAPN was the first to present him with an Excellence in leadership Award, stating that the Award was very dear to him.
Mazi Ohuabunwa commended AHAPN for setting up a Committee to draw up the guidelines for the implementation of pharmaceutical care in the country, while assuring them of the support of the Society. He then took pains to address each of the 17 requests made by the Association.
The highlight of the visit was the conferment of the Excellence in Leadership Award on the PSN President by Dr Amibor.
