Ola Ajayi

NO fewer than three million unregistered pharmaceutical premises are spread across the country, a former National President of Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Mr Olumide Akintayo has said.

Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, PSN

The proliferation of the pharmaceutical centres, he said, was as a result of weak regulations by relevant stakeholders.

He dropped this hint in an opening ceremony of the 2019 pharmacy week of the PSN, Oyo State branch, entitled Pharmacy Practice Beyond 2029: The Reality of Digitalisation which held at the Nest Spa Suite, Agodi GRA, Ibadan.

Akintayo said, “Pharmacy is a highly regulated profession. Unfortunately for us in Nigeria, poor regulatory controls have led to a situation whereby we contend with over three million unregistered pharmaceutical premises in the 36 states of the federation and Abuja.

“Fundamentally, all we are saying simply is that you can’t run away from digitalisation. It has become a world of technology. Nigeria is a global village. So, we cannot run away from events from the global environment. But the note of caution here is that you need to develop a solid regulatory framework in the implementation plan for internet pharmacy, a chain pharmacy project and all of that, or anything connected with that”.

Also read: FRSC threatens to clamp down on unregistered motorbikes, unlicensed riders from Aug 1

“We have laws that will still make it possible for us to crack down on physical structures that are unregistered. But how are we going to deal in terms of sanctions and all of that with internet pharmacy? How are we going to handle internet pharmacy because the operators will be completely laceless? There will be nobody to hold responsible.”

In his own comments,  Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State who was represented by Commissioner for Health, Dr Bashir Bello, said: “I make bold to affirm that within the tenure of this administration, health has been identified as a cardinal area of utmost importance in human development in the state.

“Thus, as a responsive government, we have taken preemptive steps to overhaul the structure of the health system with the requisite intent of meeting the health needs of our people”.

“In the last three months of this administration, the state government has put back Ring Road State Hospital to its original design with the provision of state-of-the-art medical equipment. The aim of the government is to make the hospital to compete well with the best in the world and medical tourism”, he said.

Vanguard