By Doris Obinna and Henry Uche
Following the establishment of a health sector reform programme committee under the chairmanship of Vice-President of Nigeria, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) has called on Federal Government to squash the committee immediately and reconstitute an inclusive and equitable one, which should incorporate other professional groups in the health sector.
In a statement delivered by president of PSN, Prof. Cyril Usifoh, the society lamented that the constitution of the committee was not representative of the sector, which could boomerang later.
According to him, out of the 28 members of the committee, 23 appear to be physicians, while only one pharmacist (PSN), a nurse (NANNM) and a laboratory scientist (AMLSN), the DG, BPE and DG, Federal Consumer Protection Council are confirmed not to be physicians.
“The proposed health sector reform committee may just go the way of previous health sector reform projects because the philosophy and execution plan is the same. What the Osinbajo committee will most likely bring on the table will be favourable to only physicians and that will make it unacceptable to the preponderance of health professionals and workers who make up over 90 per cent of the membership of the health sector.
“Typical of the processes involved in the sharing of benefits, packages, privileges and resources in the health sector, the reform committee, with over 85 per cent presence of physicians, already negates the rights and liberties of the majority of health workers in Nigeria.”
PSN president maintained that a committee of this nature, which had slots for the DG, FCCPC (a lawyer) but not for an agency like the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), which regulates all the drugs, medical devices, vaccines, medical equipment, chemicals, etc, that are the essential tools and commodities that drive any credible health system, was uncalled for.
Usifoh bemoaned that personalities like the Director of Hospital Services of the FMOH, DG of NACA, MD, Federal Medical Centre, Ebute-Metta, who complement the overwhelming presence of physicians on the committee, other health professionals, especially those in pharmaceutical manufacturing and importation had no place in the committee.
“We observe with consternation that at least four of the major trade unions, including MHWUN (with about 60 per cent of the entire health workforce), NUAHP, NASU and SSA have no representation on this committee. Osinbajo, being a seasoned lawyer, was expected to know much about fairness and justice. It is unthinkable that Joint Health Sector Union, which is the umbrella template of over 90 per cent of health workers, was ignored in this health reform. This structural defects will boomerang largely, without sounding like a prophet of doom.”
He claimed physicians believed that skill acquisition and professional development were their exclusive preserve while others cannot aspire to improve themselves through post-graduate programmes with impact.
“A appraisal of MDAs at Federal level by the ICPC, it was discovered that the FHIs and other MDAs in the Health sector are the most corrupt. This reform process therefore must centre on a need to disrupt a most inequitable, fruitless and obviously destructive status quo. It is reasonable to suspect that government is already walking the path of privatisation and selling of government property,” he asseverated.
