Former president of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Pharm. Tony Akhimien, has declared that our health indices are still poor despite the current efforts of the minister of health. He advised that the ideals of the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) with target date of 2015 cannot be achieved if we do not restrategize and indeed break the barrier created by lack of collaboration amongst healthcare givers.

Akhimien, however, appraised the positive disposition of the health minister to ensure the collaboration of the Federal, state and local government in health care issues.

Health indices in Nigeria
Health indices are still poor despite the current efforts of the minister of health to implement some of the reforms in the health ministry. The ideals of the millennium development goals with target date of 2015 cannot be achieved if we do not re-strategize and break the barrier created by lack of collaboration amongst healthcare givers. Doctors alone do not make the health team. Health indicators show that malaria is still a major killer of our children, especially between 0-5 years of age.

The Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria reviewed the global disposition of the World Medical Association (WMA), in its 2005 Medical Ethics Manual, which posits that “the Physician has an obligation to co-operate in the co-ordination of medically indicated care with other healthcare providers treating the patient. We put on record the positive disposition of the health minister to ensure the collaboration of the Federal, state and local government in health care endeavours. Care providers must also work as a team to facilitate the attainment of good healthcare practice. It is in this regard, that we wonder loudly why the National Health Bill approved by the National Assembly remains a moribund document. A National Health Act certainly will redress a lot of imperfections in our health system and therefore we call for a speedy promulgation and enforcement of this Act.

Salaries and wages of pharmacists and other health workers
To avoid a total withdrawal of services by other healthcare workers, we advise government to be sincere in the ongoing negotiation for better wages. Government must embrace the principle of justice and equity to all concerned by fixing wages of healthcare-providers based on the recent Job evaluation conducted under the auspices of the Federal Ministry of Health and Management Service Office in the office of the Head of Service of the Federation.
One of the revelations of the Job evaluation report was that over 95percent of patients who see doctors also visit pharmacists for drug counseling and dispensing. For the records, the Job evaluation report recommended a ratio 10.00:8.7 for doctors and pharmacists, which we only reluctantly accepted because of the one year difference in duration of training because drugs remains the pivot of any credible healthcare system. The Job evaluation documents remains the most scientific and credible yardstick to guide the Federal Government in the unfolding context to avoid a strike action of health workers.
Recent development at the PCN

Our profession has never been this assaulted by any administration or government and we are worried that in the past few months, Our practice/profession has become perennially dotted with wrong appointments in the various sensitive regulatory agencies affecting drug distribution endeavours in Nigeria both at NAFDAC and now PCN.
Government’s response to events in PCN has not been encouraging and it must be stressed that some fundamental decisions which are based on statutory provisions, especially in the area of training and disciplinary matters continue to be negated because of the defects in PCN composition.
Moving the profession forward
Three years ago, in the thick of canvassing for votes to lead the PSN. I adopted the campaign slogan above. I therefore find it necessary to share experiences on how we fared with respect to this subject matter under the below sub-heads:

Pharmacy education
Ten years ago in Enugu, we resolved that Pharm. D. would be the minimum registrable qualification for pharmacists in Nigeria. After the initial controversies which were successfully tackled by my predecessor, the Pharm. D programme has now received the full approval of the NUC. Apart from UNIBEN, UNlJOS I can confirm, has applied to NUC to commence the Pharm. D. programme. I must however call on the other faculties of Pharmacy to brace this concept in the future interest of our profession.

Fellowship programme of the West African Postgraduate College of Pharmacists (WAPCP) also been critically appraised by the Council of Establishment which sent field officers to four states. I make bold to say we are now in the advanced stage of its eventual approval and I strongly urge colleagues especially in the public sector to make use of this opportunity to boost their careers as well as attain professional fulfillment. As part of capacity building in Pharmacy we have embarked on a process of partnering with colleagues in diaspora basically to share and develop a productive professional culture. Today, some of our colleagues in the diaspora are present at this conference and we solicit more of their kind support in the years ahead.

Career progression in public sector
We have in the last few years moved to address the challenge of stagnation in the career profile of colleagues in Federal Teaching and Specialist hospitals as well as Federal Medical Centres. Hitherto, pharmacists in these hospitals could not rise above GL 15 as Assistant directors, because of restrictions created by Decree 10 of 1985. The PSN took up the issue with the office of the Head of Service of the Federation (HOSF) and we can report that through that intervention, pharmacists in this sector can now rise to GL17, even when they are not designated directors.
Today, some of our colleagues are on GL I7, while some are waiting for confirmation after interviews.

Advocacy visit to the states
In the last three years, the PSN president visited over 22 States of the federation on advocacy inclined ventures. Our colleagues at Park Lane Hospital bear eloquent testimony of the significant improvement in infrastructure after our visit to the hospital. In Zamfara State, we commissioned the PSN state branch, while we helped to facilitate the approval of a Model Pharmacy Department at the Federal Medical Centre, Gusau.

Pharmacy house
After the usual bureaucratic processes associated with big projects, I am glad to say that on June 17th, 2009, we signed a contractual agreement with Churchgate group to build a 30 Storey pharmacy house at Victoria Island, Lagos. On October 27th, 2009, the distinguished Senate President, Senator David Mark, GCON, ably represented by Senator (Lady) Erne Ekaette, FPSN, OFR commissioned the future National Headquarters of the PSN in Abuja.

Professional discipline
Over time, we have observed with disgust the immesity of indiscipline in our profession. I thank the PSN NEC and Council for approving the Constitution of the Disciplinary Committee of the PSN which has met to tackle the first set of alleged erring pharmacists.

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