Pharmacist Bridget Otote, is the Chairman Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Abuja chapter. In this interview with ADEOLA TUKURU, she explains the numerous challenges facing Nigerian pharmacists in their practice such as quackery, lack of funding, discrimination by other health workers among others. She also speaks on the expectations of pharmacists from the present administration, among others. Excerpts:
What is your take on the availability of essential drugs in the country?
All hands are on deck in trying to ensure the availability of essential drugs. I can say confidently that we are not where we were five years ago but there is still room for improvement, it can be better.
What are the challenges facing pharmacists?
A lot, most of the times we are not recognized. Nigerians do not know who a pharmacist is, I have had to correct a lot of my patients as a community pharmacist. They always refer to me as a doctor when they see me on white robe but I make sure I correct them and I think every pharmacist should do that. The credit of our good works are given to others because we are not known, every patient thinks they get well by the efforts of the doctor. In the civil service if not until recently, we could not get to directorship cadre, we were made to stop at deputy director and it took years of long battle before we were able to get that recognition. We have only very few directors of pharmaceutical services particularly in FCT. Not just fellow professional colleagues or medical teams, but we are being fought by the patent medicine vendors who want to claim rights as pharmacists. We are being fought by the pharmacists’ technicians who I know in cross river statutory being allowed to open chemists in pharmaceutical premises, and we are being fought in some cases by even doctors and nurses. Apart from recognition we have aloof battles we are fighting to be able to get to our proper place in the society. We see doctors embarking strikes on all manner of implementation, agreements etc. Are you carried along or discriminated against?
We are not carried along and that is why we joined Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU). As disciplined pharmacists, most of the times we are very tolerant, it is only in recent times that you started hearing pharmacists going on strike along JOHESU and it is because there is a limit to what anybody can take. When consistently we see that we are being discriminated upon, we are practicing within the same society, we are operating within the same economy, we go on rounds, we go on calls, practically everything that the doctors do even in school we do almost the same courses but for a few. Most pharmacists are pharmacists by choice, not because they cannot read medicine. As students, many of the doctors you see around are our class mates and they are students we beat hands down in class. Even some of us gained admission to study medicine but turned it down because of our passion for pharmacy but where the doctors begin to make it look as if they are a special being or because they are more intelligent than pharmacists and that is why they are doctors and now treat the pharmacists as second hand citizens, this is most unfair. This is why we are rising up to the challenge and also to make our voices heard by the people we serve and by the government.
As chairman of the FCT PSN chapter, what are you doing to address the issues of illegal pharmacies cropping up?
We have been doing a lot, we have a committee called the Pharmaceutical Inspectorate Committee (PIC) that has a delegated power because regulation of pharmacies is supposed to be done by Pharmacists Council of Nigeria but because they cannot be everywhere at every point in time, they delegate this function to the federal ministry of health in FCT and it is being done by the department of the pharmaceutical services of Federal Capital Territory Authority (FCTA) and because of challenges in the past, we started the inspectorate committee from the FCT, we sponsored the idea and it was bought by other states whereby there is partnership between the private sector and the government. We came up with this idea because sometimes the people in position who are supposed to carry out this enforcement are being intimidated by other government personnel and there is nothing they can do because they are in government. With the partnership, it will be difficult for any boss to just pass an instruction to the subordinates and in that way we can regulate within the law.
How many illegal shops have been closed down under your jurisdiction?
Sometimes last year, there was a joint enforcement between the FCT PIC and Nasarawa state PIC being coordinated by the PSN where over 200 shops including pharmacies and patent medicine stores were closed. We go on inspection every month; we embark on enforcement every quarter. Even when we are on routine monthly inspection, we try to sniff around and if we observe anything going wrong within any premises, we stop and carry out enforcement so I would be right to say we carry out enforcement not just quarterly but as at when necessary.
How are you dealing with the issue of quacks in the FCT?
Once you are a pharmacist you are not a quack, the quacks are the non-pharmacists. Not all patent medicine vendors are quacks because there are some registered ones who have gone through some form of training and are licensed by the PCN. It is just that they go beyond what they do which is to administer drugs over the counter. That is where we have problems with the registered patent medicine vendors. That is where we have most of the quacks a lot of time and I am sure more than 80% of them are not fully registered, they just get a shop, put in drugs and start selling, they give injections while deliveries are done in those outlets. Although, I must say that it is not sacrosanct, we have instances where recently a license of a pharmacist was found in a non-registered premises. A boy that has worked with him probably stole the license and is pretending to be a pharmacist. So it is still not the pharmacist who is responsible for that practice but the non-pharmacist who is trying to pretend to be a pharmacist.
What advice do you have for Nigerians on usage of drugs?
People are very enlightened now with the internet that keeps pharmacists on their toes, going back to carry out research and study. Nigerians should not take their health for granted, we have a right to the best of health, we have a right to information, we have a right to ask our pharmacists, doctors and nurses what we are being given and why. Nigerians should ask questions.
Do you think enough funds is being budgeted for the health sector and what is your advice to the present administration concerning poor budgeting for the sector?
Not at all. I wish the present administration would focus more on health in terms of funding and training of personnel.
What are some of your achievements in the FCT?
I have basically been trying to build on what I met on ground. As a person I have always felt where there is no continuity, we won’t have development because most if the time, it takes years before we can begin to feel the impact of certain development. If we learn to accept, we have only come to impact our quota and go away leaving the next person to continue because our tenure is just three years in PSN. This is a short time in carrying out any remarkable development but if we can learn to work as one, building on the achievements of the last person, it will go a long way building up our society and organization. I’ve been trying to stabilize the society because I came in at a time when we had a lot of challenges, I thank God the society is very stable and cohesive now. I have also tried to continue most of the work started by my predecessor, I haven’t dropped any project. We have our proposed site for our secretariat at Life Camp which we are trying to develop. My predecessor started development on the plot and I promise there will be something there by the time I am leaving which was one of my promises when I came in. We have also tried to make welfare very important by trying to reach out to our colleagues whenever they are celebrating; we have tried to be our brother’s keeper in death. We have also tried being a mouth piece for our brothers whenever and where ever they are being sidelined.
What are your expectations from the present administration to Pharmacists?
I will appreciate if the Federal Government can begin to recognize pharmacists as consultants because most of us are qualified, most of us have gone through the West African Post-Graduate College of Pharmacists but we are yet to answer that title “Consultant,” we have gone a long way towards achieving that trait.
By: Adeola Tukuru
National Mirror News
ABUJA: Training Schedule for Basic Life Support BLS, Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support ACLS, First Aid, CPR, AED
PORTHARCOURT: Training Schedule for Basic Life Support BLS, Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support ACLS, First Aid, CPR, AED
LAGOS: Training Schedule for Basic Life Support BLS, Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support ACLS, First Aid, CPR, AED
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