The leadership of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) in Lagos State have called on Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to immediately lift the suspension on the consultant cadre for pharmacists in the state.
The chairman of the Lagos State branch of PSN, Mr. Oyekunle Babayemi, who expressed disappointment that the decision of Sanwo-Olu to suspend the approved cadre by the administration of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode in May 2028, following a fruitful negotiation between the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) and PSN and the State government, said the policy is inevitable in the value chain of healthcare delivery.
In a statement made available to LEADERSHIP in Abuja yesterday, Babayemi recalled that “in 2018, the Executive Council of LASG approved consultancy cadre for pharmacists in the public sector but suspended the same benefit package on the promptings of the Nigerian Medical Association(NMA). That is the way it still stands till today under the Sanwo-Olu Administration.’’
Babayemi said it was imperative to impress on the progressive Sanwo-Olu-led government that healthcare is driven by international best practices and therefore cannot be restricted to the humongous as well as insatiable appetite to regulate through slowing down the growth and development of other professions by Nigerian physicians.
He spoke at the association’s 2023 annual luncheon, where he explained that, “the consultancy cadre is a reality across the globe from the UK, USA, France and Austria to African countries including Ghana, Sierra Leone, Egypt and South Africa.
According to him, “It is largely driven by a need for pharmacists to have the right knowledge to help support our patients.
“As challenges come with complications in patient therapy where care providers have to deal with multiple disease states in one patient, pharmacists must adequately respond by acquiring these competencies to bring deliverables in the value chain of healthcare delivery,” he said.
Babayemi appealed to the governor to approve the implementation of the cadre for the benefit of healthcare delivery in the state, stressing that, “for the umpteenth time, therefore, we respectfully call on Babajide Sanwo-Olu to immediately activate the Consultancy Cadre in Public Sector Pharmacy Practice. LASG must recognise and approve the Consultancy Cadre for all deserving health workers to boost competencies/capacities in peaceable dispensations and emergencies which are bound to arise.
Babayemi further said, “It will hurt us in PSN (Lagos State) if in the course of the days ahead, the LASG compels our hospital pharmacists to join other health workers to declare a long avoidable trade dispute through an imminent strike of the JOHESU/AHPA at Federal level and States which have peculiar challenges like we are currently passing through in Lagos State.
Babayemi reminded Governor Sanwo-Olu of his campaign promise to establish a College of Pharmacy approved by the PCN in Lagos State. ‘’It is mind boggling that the famed Centre of Excellence does not have a Pharmacy School when it is supposed to lead others in care provisioning for the over 20 million residents of Lagos State, even though we are aware pronouncements have been made by the authority at LASU.
He said, ‘’In the quest to open the restricted borders of progression in healthcare in Nigeria, we strongly urge Sanwo-Olu to direct unhindered access of training facilities to all health workers in training at undergraduate and post-graduate levels.
He said a way of setting the right agenda in the proposed College of Pharmacy was to recruit an experienced provost who is a professor of pharmacy without hesitation.
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