By Gabriel Olawale

The Managing Director of GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria Plc, Pharm. Kunle Oyelana has admonished community pharmacists to embrace innovation in other to remain relevant in the evolving world.

Speaking during the Continuing Education Conference, organised by the Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN), Lagos State Branch, Oyelana said that to survive, community pharmacists must be willing to acknowledge the rapidly occurring changes in healthcare delivery and accept the reality that the changes will continue.

In his keynote address titled, ‘COVID-19 Pandemic: The Need to Evolve Pharmacy Practice’, Oyelana said that COVID-19 pandemic has been the strong catalyst for change, “when the environment changes, people are bound to change.

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“Community Pharmacists practitioners need to evolve otherwise, they will be left behind.

“There are inexorable forces changing human behaviour. Before the lockdown, only a few people were used to new technologies like zoom, virtual meetings and others, but during the COVID, everybody became used to them, so there is a need for the pharmacy profession to evolve as well.

 Corroborating his views, Chairman, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, PSN, Lagos State Branch, Pharm. Iyiola Gbolagade said that the pandemic has brought to the fore the role of the community pharmacists as a pillar in the healthcare sector and as a frontline during the heat of COVID-19.

Chairman, Lagos State ACPN, Pharm. Lawrence Ekhator, disclosed that the Continuing Education Conference was designed to promote professional skills, business strategy skills, and practice skills of community pharmacists, saying it would help community pharmacists to better understand current economic realities, move with the trend, and be better equipped for the coming year.

According to him, the motive for starting the programme was to constantly update members on current changes in the profession and keep them up to date.

“Talking about the theme, ‘the need to evolve pharmacy practice’, and the sub-theme, ‘the effect of government policies in the current economy on pharmacy practice’ community pharmacy profession has both a practice and a business component and for one to be successful in the community pharmacy space, both aspect of the practice and business must be balanced”.

In its goodwill message, the Registrar, Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN), Dr NAE Mohammed, who was represented by Dr (Mrs) Ukamaka Okafor, director, Lagos Zonal Office, commended the Lagos State ACPN for the choice of the theme for the programme, saying it was very much in consonance with the reality on the ground for Pharmacy.

Vanguard News Nigeria