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PSN responds to attack on PharmD |
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Written by Administrator
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Sunday, 28 December 2008 |
The Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) has advised Nigerian Doctors to concentrate on providing effective health care delivery rather than resulting to mischievous publications
Reacting to the Association of General and Private Medical Practitioners of Nigeria (AGPMPN) statement on the redesign of pharmacy curriculum by the National Universities Commission (NUC) in a Tuesday, August 28, 2007 publication in “The Guardian” newspaper which was signed by Pharm (Sir) Tony Akhimien and Pharm NAE Mohammed (the President and National Secretary of PSN, respectively), PSN told the AGPMPN that no Doctor was in any position to challenge the contents of the training curriculum of another profession for whatever reason.
PSN informed the Doctors that they must realize that Pharmacy is an autonomous profession in Nigeria that is regulated and controlled by the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) decree 91 of 1992 and the curriculum in question was extensively debated over a period of fifteen years before the NUC eventually approved the programme. The PharmD programme is meant to enable Pharmacists play more patient oriented role, provide and enhance more patient oriented pharmaceutical services to be able to meet the increasing needs of patients as medication is becoming risky with many drug products emerging daily. Those who favoured a universal PharmD desire that apart from manufacturing the drugs, Pharmacists should also focus on Pharmaceutical care, Systems Management and Public Health. The pharmaceutical care complements the clinical role of the physician and helps to improve outcome of therapy and reduce costs of medicines.
PSN told the AGPMPN that the impression that only Doctors “take care of patients” is outdated and the patient now occupies a center stage in the medical team where the health team provides the healthcare service to an empowered, informed and activated patient. They lamented that the unfortunate approach of Nigerian doctors who focus on Curative Healthcare was mainly responsible for the rating of the Nigerian Health system 187 out of 191 countries by the World Health Organization (WHO). PSN stated that the Pharmacists and the PharmD orientation do not seek to make incursion into any other professional calling unlike the AGPMPN doctors who actually make incursions into other professions through quackery when they train “auxiliary nurses” and “certify” them to replace registered nurses in their Hospitals, while they train pharmacy attendants to dispense drugs.
The PSN concluded that practitioners of medicine cannot afford to be promoters of falsehood, because such can only expose the public to confusion. The association advised all sectoral groupings that are not versatile on particular subject matters not to relegate themselves to celebrating ignorance in the mass media but must learn to be tolerant, matured and focused in thinking and vision on the common goal of safeguarding the health of the public. |
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 28 December 2008 )
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