By Doris Obinna
The Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN) has urged President Bola Tinubu to urgently revitalised the health sector of the country before it collapses.
It said revitalising Nigeria’s healthcare through reforms would pave way for the appointment of Adviser Pharmaceutical Services/Chairman reforms on drug distribution.
The association called for urgent reforms in three areas which include; full implementation of the National Health Act 2014 (NH-2014), defining and articulating the full potential of primary healthcare in Nigeria, and running the National Health Insurance (NHI) project in alignment with due process in the public interest.
A letter to the President, jointly signed by the National Chairman, Adewale Oladigbolu, and National Secretary, Ezeh Ambrose, explained that the appointed adviser for Pharmaceutical Services/Chairman Reforms on Drug Distribution endeavours would champion the resuscitation of drug distribution generally with a specific mandate on all the three agenda items.
“The NH-2014 ordinarily ought to be the supreme legislation in healthcare in Nigeria. It is a product of twists and turns spanning over a decade before it was eventually enacted as an Act of Parliament. One of the most positive reflections of this Act is the creation of a Basic National Healthcare Provision Fund (BNHPF), which is meant to be an accrual of one per cent from the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
“This proviso of the law, if well implemented, will make healthcare more impactful as it will guarantee better funding of the health sector which groans under both a paucity of funds and gross mismanagement of even budgeted funds often times bordering on an average of just about five per cent relative to the 13 per cent prescribed by heads of government that facilitated the Abuja declaration of 2021.”
The association maintained that BNHPF remains a major tool to drive the actualisation of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) as it lawfully provides that the BNHPF should fund Social Health Insurance to the tune of 50 per cent of dedicated funds.
It further explained that for so long, health policy chiefs and advisers have negated primary care services for pecuniary interests or other normal professional gains.
“The quest for UCH will continue to be a ruse if it is not grounded on a well worked out primary healthcare concept. One of the professional groups that can immediately boost the primary care ideology is Community Pharmacy facilities and Pharmacists who practice in them.
“In one of the most exceptionally notable departures from the status quo, the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHDA) in 2021 designated Community Pharmacies as vaccination ventres for COVID-19 in a bid to promote easy access to the vaccines, a move which is commendable as events proved it was a right step in the right direction.”
The association reiterated that one of the biggest monumental failures ever recorded in the health sector remains the uninspiring nature of Social Health Insurance portfolio in our nation.
“Over the years establishment of Social Health Insurance in Nigeria, it has been anchored by extremely inexperienced physicians with attendant corruption and undiluted failure,” they added.
