Posted on: Mon 29-08-2022

The Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria has advocated the inclusion of community pharmacies as primary healthcare centres.

In a statement on Sunday, the ACPN National Chairman, Adewale Oladigbolu, said the inclusion of pharmacies as primary healthcare centres would help in achieving universal health coverage.

Oladigbolu was quoted to have spoken during the 41st Annual National Scientific Conference of the ACPN.

The communiqué from the conference was made available to our correspondent.

The statement partly read, “Inclusion of community pharmacies as primary healthcare centres in Nigeria will propel improved quality of life, which translates to a decreased burden of health care on the government.

“The PHCs in existence are too few to serve the populace, often under-resourced and lacking in skilled manpower due to a depletion resulting from relocation and retirement of trained personnel. The inclusion of pharmacies as primary healthcare centres would help in achieving universal health coverage.

“The Conference posited that the PHC is a community-oriented model for the discharge of health care services to the population in their communities in a way that is easy and acceptable to them. The Conference relied on the World Health Organisation declaration that “Community Pharmacists are the health professionals most accessible to the public who render services.”

Oladigbolu, in the statement added, “As a result, the conference urged government at the state and federal levels, as well as the private sector, to use pharmacists’ depth of knowledge and broad spectrum skills in all key health programs, including primary healthcare endeavours, social health insurance, and managed healthcare schemes, in order to ensure access to affordable and qualitative health care services.”

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