Consultant Pharmacists Can Prevent 50% Of Drug Errors- WAPCP

The West African Postgraduate College of Pharmacists (WAPCP), Nigeria Chapter, has called for comprehensive policy reforms to expand the clinical responsibilities of consultant pharmacists across Nigeria’s healthcare system.

It said the move can prevent over 50 per cent of adverse drug events and help lower healthcare costs.

The director of Pharmaceutical Services, Osun State Hospitals Management Board, Dr Moteehat Olu-Lawal, made the appeal, during her keynote presentation titled “Expanding Consultant Pharmacists’ Clinical Roles in Nigeria to Optimise Patient Care and Medication Safety” at the 8th Scientific Conference and Annual General Meeting of the WAPCP held at the Pharmaceutical Council of Nigeria Auditorium in Yaba, Lagos.

Olu-Lawal argued that consultant pharmacists should no longer be viewed as professionals confined to dispensing medicines but as advanced clinical practitioners capable of leading medication therapy management, preventing medication-related harm and improving treatment outcomes.

She noted that strengthening consultant pharmacy practice would help Nigeria’s overstretched healthcare system save substantial costs from preventable medication errors, prolonged hospital admissions and avoidable complications.

Citing international evidence, she said that preventable medication errors cost the global healthcare system an estimated $ 42 billion annually. At the same time, one in every 20 patients worldwide suffers harm from preventable medication-related incidents.

She described the expansion of consultant pharmacists’ clinical roles as “a healthcare survival imperative” rather than a professional ambition.

Speaking on Nigeria’s healthcare realities, Olu-Lawal observed that, despite the country’s population exceeding 200 million, the number of registered pharmacists remains inadequate and falls far short of the World Health Organisation’s recommended standard.

She listed the responsibilities that consultant pharmacists are trained to perform, including direct patient care, medication therapy management, prescribing and deprescribing, chronic disease management, pharmacovigilance, antimicrobial stewardship, and clinical governance.

She, however, lamented that many are unable to perform these functions due to institutional and systemic barriers.

Presenting findings from a national survey of 32 consultant pharmacists across 30 healthcare facilities in 21 states and the FCT, Olu-Lawal said they are actively involved in prescription review, pharmaceutical care interventions and pharmacovigilance, but remain underutilised in multidisciplinary ward rounds and clinical documentation.

The survey showed that while 84 per cent participate in prescription reviews, only 41 per cent join pharmacist-led ward rounds and just 38 per cent document clinical interventions in patients’ medical records.

She identified the major obstacles as excessive workload, inadequate staffing, limited multidisciplinary collaboration, lack of management recognition, restricted access to patient records and exclusion from hospital wards. According to the survey, 62 per cent cited workload and staff shortages as the biggest challenge, followed by limited collaboration at 41 per cent and poor recognition by management at 28 per cent.

To address this, Olu-Lawal recommended institutional recognition of consultant pharmacists as essential members of multidisciplinary teams and unrestricted access to patient files, electronic medical records and clinical wards.

She also called for integrating them into ward rounds, case conferences, and governance structures, as well as for increased investment through budgetary allocations, expanded residency programmes, and decentralisation across federal and state institutions.

She further urged the redistribution of tasks within pharmacy departments to free consultant pharmacists for advanced clinical duties, and asked healthcare managers to recognise them based on measurable outcomes.

She challenged the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria to establish a national database on clinical outcomes. She called on the PCN, the Federal Ministry of Health, and the NHIA to support the evidence-based expansion of consultant pharmacy practice.

Also speaking, the Chairman of the Nigeria Chapter of WAPCP, Dr Afusat Adesina, said the conference theme reflects the profession’s commitment to repositioning pharmacists as integral members of clinical care teams.

She stressed that consultant pharmacists must move beyond dispensing to participate in bedside care, ward rounds and therapeutic decision-making, while also leveraging health technology and local manufacturing to improve medicine security.

In his remarks, Chairman of the Conference Planning Committee, Dr Abubakar Danraka, said the two-day conference featured paper presentations, workshops, and panel discussions focused on integrating consultant pharmacists into multidisciplinary teams and on deploying digital technologies to improve medication safety.

He urged participants to develop practical solutions to strengthen pharmaceutical services and to shape policies that support the evolving role of consultant pharmacists in Nigeria’s healthcare system.