By Chioma  Obinna
LAGOS — The Federal Government has been urged to return the controversial National Health Bill to the National Assembly for a re-debate on the gray areas pointed out by stakeholders in the health sector.

Former President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, PSN, Mr Anthony Akhimien, who made the call in Lagos, said the bill was necessary to develop the nation’s health sector.

He said the present state of the bill overrode duties of other regulating bodies backed by law in the health sector.

Akhimien condemned the section of the Bill, which says the Chairman of the National Health Commission must be a medical doctor with some years of experience, notng that “there is no where in the world where such laws are made.”

He said: “The job of the chairman of a health commission is purely administrative and has nothing to do with clinical matters or dispensing of drugs.”

What we need was the best manager, who will pull resources together and manage the health commission. This is part of the gray areas which government should take a second look at, so that other professionals can have a say in that council, otherwise it will generate controversy when Mr. president would have signed it without those amendments.”