The Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) said it is working towards repositioning community pharmacies and patent medicines shops (PMS) in the country.
Speaking during the consultative meeting with the council’s funding and implementing partners in Abuja , yesterday, Registrar of the council, Pharmacist Elijah Mohammed said it would improve quality of healthcare service delivery in the facilities.
He said the place of community pharmacies and patent medicines shops as primary healthcare facilities could not be overemphasized especially with the backdrop of the Federal Ministry of Health’s renewed commitment to drive the universal health access (UHA) through the primary health care.
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He said in line with its repositioning bid, the PCN was collaborating with the Management Sciences for Health (MSH), an international non-governmental organization to carry out a research project aimed at improving healthcare service delivery by patent medicines vendors. The registrar said the sensitisation and consultative forum was convened to identify and share experiences on the ways through which healthcare service delivery could be improved in the patent medicines shops.
“Upon completion of the project, it is hoped that the structure and operations of the patent medicines shops would have to be stratified, and the whole concept metamorphose into “Improved Patent Medicines Shop” of our dream; with the goal to improve regulated access to medicines as well as the spectrum and quality of primary healthcare services in the PMS,” he said.
He said some of the challenges facing patent medicine shops include: inadequate manpower and funding, inadequate infrastructure (road and electricity) , and operation of PMS beyond the boundary set for them.
Others include resistance to regulation by patent medicine vendours and clustering of PMS leading to emergence of open drug markets as well as ignorance of the operators and their nefarious activities that promote self-medication, drug resistance, and treatment failure, to mention a few.
Mohammed said the council was engaging relevant stakeholders towards addressing the challenges.
Ochigbo Maria of the Management Sciences for Health assured the council of the organization’s commitment in providing technical support to the council to improve drug outlet operations and access to quality medicines and services.
By: Ojoma Akor & Aisha Mujeli
Daily Trust News
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