Posted on: Tue 29-06-2021

The fortunes of pharmacy practice have been taken to the next level, with the official recognition and approval of the pharmacist consultant cadre by the Federal government.

Disclosing the development last week in Lagos, the Registrar/CEO of the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria, PCN, Dr Elijah Mohammed, said the recognition of the pharmacist consultant cadre would make pharmacy care and practice in the country more patient-focused.

Speaking during a sensitisation workshop on the implementation of the pharmacist consultant cadre in Nigeria,    Mohammed, said the move would help to eradicate a lot of anomalies that have been on the pharmaceutical landscape of the country.

Speaking at the event, put together by the West African Postgraduate College of Pharmacists (Nigeria Chapter) in collaboration with the PCN, Mohammed said the goal was to redefine pharmacy practice to be specialised.

“Before now the practice of pharmacy in Nigeria and West Africa has been product-focused, but with growth in the pharmaceutical sciences, the new concept now is in pharmaceutical care is patient-focused in the sense of the impact of the drug on the patient.

“What we are trying to do is to redefine pharmacy practice to be patient-focused. If you are getting a drug and you are making it available to a patient you need to know what impact it is going to have on that patient.  If this concept and doctrine is infiltrated into the mind of everyone, then the issue of fake drugs will not come up.”

Speaking further, Mohammed said the new doctrine has led to the specialisation of various areas of medicine, and with this, there are more facts and information that will be made available to other healthcare professionals and also to the patient.

Stressing that a pharmacist is supposed to know all in all about drugs, Mohammed stated that the generalisation of pharmacy practice is no longer in vogue.

“You have to specialise, and when you do, you now become a consultant and you will have information on specific areas, so as a specialist you will have the requisite knowledge.”

Mohammed argued that the idea of just giving somebody drugs without consideration of the after-effects is no longer in vogue.

“You must zero down on the impact of that drug on the patient, that is why we are getting specialists in various areas to become consultants. The consultant status  can let them know this is specialists and cam advice the patient and other healthcare providers and better services can come into play.”

In his own contribution, the Chairman of the Governing Council of the PCN, Prof  Ahmed Mora,  the impact of the consultant cuts across public, private, and community practice.

“This programme is to sensitise the public about the recently released circular by the Federal government recognising the pharmacist consultant cadre in the civil service.

“It is to bring to the consciousness of the pharmacy Fellows that should benefit from the consultant cadre, their roles responsibilities, and expectations from them, and to educate other pharmacists who may want to join and enroll in the college.

---

---