Federal health institutions are owing pharmaceutical companies the sum of N30 billion this year, the president of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Professor Cyril Usifo, has revealed.
He made the disclosure at the 96th Annual National Conference of the PSN in Gombe, Gombe State, tagged: “Jewel City 2023”.
In a statement it issued yesterday, PSN blamed the development on the collapse of the Drug Revolving Fund (DRF) scheme.
According to him, the situation would not have occurred if the proceeds of the DRF scheme were not diverted to things other than what the fund was meant for.
Describing the creation of the DRF as one of the salient fallouts of the old Essential Drug Decree 43 of 1989, now the Essential Drug Act Cap 252 LFN in 2004, Usifo said the scheme was designed to deal with the challenges of the perennial out of stock syndrome in public health institutions.
He said, ‘’DRF manual was designed to achieve a successful scheme. It was working very well from its inception until the different hospital management began to mutilate the original configuration of the DRF manual.
“A fundamental provision of the DRF manual was a compelling need to designate a pharmacist, preferably the head of department (HoD) pharmacy as the project manager and a compulsory signatory in the DRF scheme. Like the name of the scheme suggests, any diversion of the proceeds of the DRF ultimately would lead to financial decapitation and collapse of the scheme.
‘’To buttress the fact that a well-run DRF tackles the menace of this out-of-stock syndrome in public pharmacy department, DRF scheme of the National Orthopedic Hospital, Igbobi (NOHI) which was the flagship over a decade ago give birth to a pharmacy house worth over N300 million in 2014 without a collapse of the DRF programme because the management of the hospital at the time gave the needed cooperation,” he said.
Osifo also blamed the collapse of DRF scheme on misapplication of proceeds, insisting that the, “militating bane of collapse DRF schemes in the various FHIs at federal level, states and LGA levels remains the unfortunate reality that the DRF proceeds were diverted to other endeavours apart from drugs, contrary to the provisions in the DRF Manuals.”
Osifo said the 56 FHIs owed the pharmaceutical industry a staggering N18 billion as of 2021 and now N30 billion in 2023 and “this is a major reason the companies are no longer interested in supplying debtors which unfortunately, are the government hospitals.’’
The PSN boss recalled that in 2021, the PSN and JOHESU drew the attention of the Federal Ministry of Health to the problems of collapsing DRF schemes including the gargantuan distortion witnessed at National Orthopedic Hospital Igbobi, which was the national benchmark for the DRF.
He said the PSN called for a probe of the NOHI affair and clamoured for a special retreat to resuscitate DRF by bringing together the HoD, pharmacies and physicians/chief executive officers of all the FHIs.
‘’The Federal Ministry of Health agreed to the request to probe the misnomers at NOH Igbobi while also accepting the concept of the retreat proposed by the PSN,” Osifo said.
He lamented that the ideas were truncated by policy changes by the government. ‘’As frequently witnessed with government, policy somersaults have ensured the PSN/JOHESU request were not adhered to by the immediate past leadership of the Federal Ministry of Health,’’ he added.
‘’In the new order, the PSN demands with a huge sense of responsibility that the DRF retreats proposed in 2021 should still hold,’’ Usifo said.
‘’The PSN also solicits legislative action to back the implementation of sustainable DRF scheme as the minimum benchmark that compels availability of essential drugs in all public pharmacy departments.’’
Usifo also raised the alarm over the collapse of regulated drug supply chains in the country with undesirable consequences, including drug abuse and misuse.
He stated that because of the sensitivity of ‘Drug use matters’, its regulation and control is constitutionally under the control of the federal government as listed in item 21, Part 1 of 2nd Schedule in the 1999 constitution.
Usifo expressed displeasure over the dissolution of the governing council of the Pharmacy Council (PCN), the body saddled with direct responsibility to regulate, and control drugs thereby incapacitating it from functioning effectively.
He said despite the federal government’s involvement, the country is faced with the challenge of ‘’over two million unregistered pharmaceutical premises, over 35 open drug markets, dispensing physicians in private hospitals, a thriving drug abuse and misuse culture which is seriously consuming our people especially youths and even women.
‘’The federal government probably conscious of the sensitivity of drugs matters as placed on the exclusive list did not dissolve the governing council of NAFDAC and the NDLEA but was not guided in the dissolution of the governing council of the Pharmacy Council (PCN) which speaks, regulates, controls and issue certificates to practice all retail, wholesale distribution, importation, manufacture of drugs and vaccines, veterinary products, dressings, and consumables in Nigeria.’’
According to him, despite federal government involvement, the country is faced with the challenge of ‘’over two million unregistered pharmaceutical premises, over 35 open drug markets, dispensing physicians in private hospitals, a thriving drug abuse and misuse culture which is seriously consuming our people especially youths and even women.”
