Olufunminiyi Dayo, a member of the Pharmacist Council of Nigeria’s (PCN’s) monitoring team in Lagos State, has urged the Federal Government to pay more attention on how to curb the growing illegal drug markets in the country by giving extra support to council through better funding.
The PCN, as the regulatory body for licensed pharmacists in Nigeria, are charged with the responsibility of regulating and monitoring the activities of practicing pharmacists who are expected to solely establish and run drug businesses in the country, by ensuring that quacks are eliminated from the system.
Speaking on the capability of PCN to perform this role effectively, Dayo regretted that the council which was established by law was being under-funded by the Federal Government and as such lacked adequate facilities that could enable it extend its monitoring functions to all over the country to be able to check on quacks who are endangering lives of innocent Nigerians.
Dayo, Director of DE-OMEGA Healthcare Pharmacy, Lagos, also called on the government to ensure the speedy passage of the Pharmacy Practitioners Professional Bill into law to enhance better recognition and performances of pharmacists in the health sector.
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He stated that it was regrettable that the Pharmacist Bill, which had been passed by the National Assembly since 2018, and forwarded to the Executive for the President’s assent was still yet to get due attention of being signed into law by the president, even after members of the PSN had visited the president twice on the issue.
He explained that non-passage of the Pharmacist Bill into law was creating a huge discrimination in the health sector between Pharmacists and medical doctors who are both expected to be at par by enjoying equal recognition both in practice and in the administration of the health sector, particularly as being appointed as health ministers.
The pharmacist also called on the government to curb or minimise medical tourism by giving more budgetary allocation to the health sector, so that our health institutions and facilities can be able to procure better and modern equipments comparable to those available in the foreign countries Nigerians are visiting for healthcare services, adding that Nigerian doctors and pharmacists posses same qualities like their foreign counterparts.
