… Write Attorney General, Minister of Justice
… Accuse health ministry of ignoring professional laws
By Chioma Obina
Pharmacists under the aegis of the Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria, (ACPN) on Saturday faulted a newly released National Drug Revolving Fund (DRF) Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for healthcare facilities, accusing the Federal Ministry of Health of undermining the role of pharmacists in drug procurement and management.
In a letter addressed to the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, signed by the National Chairman, Ambrose Ezeh and made available to Vanguard, the ACPN, argued that the SOP, which outlines the structure and operations of DRF committees at federal and local government levels, violates the provisions of the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria (PCN) Act.
According to the ACPN, the SOP proposes that the DRF committees at the federal level be headed by the Chairman-Medical Advisory Committee (C-MAC), a position exclusively reserved for physicians. At the local government level, the heads of the DRF committees would be designated heads of the facilities, who are often not pharmacists.
The association maintained that this arrangement is a clear breach of Section 59(1) of the PCN Act, which states that ethical drugs can only be stored, supplied, sold, or dispensed under the direct supervision of a licensed pharmacist.
“It is unacceptable to create a lacuna for local government areas to rely on the assumption that a majority of pharmacists don’t take up employment at this level and delegate drug matters to non-pharmaceutically qualified personnel,” Ezeh said.
The ACPN also highlighted the expertise and legal authority of pharmacists in drug procurement and management.
They emphasised that pharmacists are the only professionals legally authorized to import, export, mix, compound, prepare, dispense, counsel, sell, procure, and distribute drugs in Nigeria.
“The DRF implementation mode has been enmeshed in a lot of mess and outright shady deals in recent years,” the ACPN stated, pointing to the numerous instances of corruption and mismanagement in DRF schemes across the country.
The association called on the Federal Ministry of Health to suspend the implementation of the DRF SOP until the issues raised by the ACPN are addressed.
They also urged the ministry to support ongoing efforts in the National Assembly to enact a professional and public-oriented statute to govern DRF endeavours in all public health institutions.
The lettered tagged: “Another Journey to Doomsday” reads in parts, “The Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria, (ACPN) has in recent times come across a document styled National Drug Revolving Fund (DRF) Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for the Health Facilities which is a 167-page document.
“Some of the major highlights of the document reveal that the DRF committees will be headed at the Federal Level in the Federal Health Institutions (FHIs) by the Chairman-Medical Advisory Committee (C-MAC) a portfolio exclusively reserved for physicians through the witty manipulation of the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) and its appendages.
At the Local Government Area (LGA) level, the head of the DRF Committee will be the designated head of the facility at the LGA.
It is a clear breach of section 59(1) of the PCN Act in Nigeria for any LGA to stock ethical drugs if Pharmacists are not in their employment in the first place.
Section 59(1) declares inter-alia that Ethical drugs shall not be store, supplied, sold, offered to be sold or dispensed by any person unless under the direct supervision of a licenced pharmacist.
Section 59(2)A person shall not store, supply, sell, or dispense dangerous drugs unless –
a) he is a licensed pharmacist; the drug is in a container of the prescribed description; and c) the container bears a label indicating the prescribed particulars of its contents.
The only exception where the Directors of Pharmaceuticals/HOD of Pharmacy will be allowed to lead the DRF Committee is at State level.
It is a statement of fact that the development that crystalised into this DRF SOP for facilities appears to be the apogee of the misnomer.
The Standard Operating Procedures is an undisguised confirmation that the Federal Ministry of Health has finally returned to its old ways where all privileges in the Health Sector must be schemed to be at the beck and call of physicians even when the spirit of the law is not in alignment with same.
The National Drug Revolving Fund Standard Operating Procedure is about subterfuge and intrigues which the ACPN strongly contends will not be allowed to subvert the supremacy of the two dominant Pharmacy laws vis the PCN Act 2022 and the Poison & Pharmacy Act Cap 535 LFN 1990.
Today’s Pharmacy statutes do not give an all clear for non-pharmacists to dominate the running of drug related endeavours either on ad-hoc or full-time basis.
It is very unacceptable to create a lacuna for LGAs to rely on apocryphal inclination that a preponderance of Pharmacists don’t take up employment at LGAs to delegate drug matters to non-pharmaceutically qualified personnel.
The ACPN takes a position that the law is the law, and must therefore be made to rule by being involved albeit appropriately statutorily speaking.
In other that the Honourable Minister might appreciate the strength of our position, we shall itemise the relevant issues as reflected: – Legal approbation for the procurement of drugs. DRF on memory lane and testimonial. Administrative precedence on the structuring of the DRF. Legal Approbation for the Procurement of Drugs”
“Honourable Minister, the ACPN calls for a suspension of the implementation of the Drug Revolving Fund Standard Operating Procedures recently released by the Federal Ministry of Health until the fundamental distortions highlighted in this memo are urgently redressed by the appropriate quarters.
“The Federal Ministry of Health is seriously enjoined to support the on-going initiatives at National Assembly to enact a professional and public oriented statute to drive DRF endeavours in all public health institutions in Nigeria.
“Finally, we wish to encourage the Federal Government in view of the vagaries of the 1999 Constitution to make conscious and very serious efforts to allow the rule of law mantra inspire its renewed hope philosophy at the Federal Ministry of Health particularly because the leadership of the ministry is beginning to make a tragic U-turn in its hitherto commitment to reverse the disunity triggered by years of an unusual dominance deliberately orchestrated to reduce all other health professionals to the hirelings of physicians in an otherwise multi-disciplinary sector that should open the space for all players to thrive without fear or favour.”
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