The Nigeria Academy of Pharmacy (NAPHARM) has admitted 15 new fellows and 10 life fellows united by the quest to propel new frontiers of wellness and good health, on the back of pharmacy and the pharmaceutical sciences into the Academy.
NAPHARM’s President, Prince Julius Adelusi-Adeluyi, at the investiture ceremony of the pharmacists which include teachers, researchers and industry practitioners at the Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos State, stated that one of the bedrocks of the Academy is “using pharmaceutical research and development to break new grounds in human progress”.
According to Prince Adelusi-Adeluyi, the academy also employs “strategic advocacy and other means to increase government and societal support for scientific research and pharmaceutical research in particular”.
He stated that the academy is interested in “the study and teaching of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences and continues to make inputs in these critical areas, in conjunction with Deans of Nigeria’s Pharmacy Schools, the National Universities Commission and the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria.”
The occasion’s guest speaker, Dr Theresa Pounds, who spoke on the imperative of expanding the roles of pharmacists in the area of primary healthcare, decried Nigeria’s dismal health indices and urged a redress of the gaps in the country’s primary healthcare sector to radically enhance these indices.
Dr Pounds said Nigeria’s primary healthcare system will benefit considerably, if pharmacists are increasingly integrated into the primary healthcare system, being highly-trained and the most accessible healthcare provider to patients.
Drawing from her experience in other parts of the world, she added that community pharmacies can assist with such initiatives as vaccinations, family planning and health education to complement the efforts of other healthcare providers and institutions in bringing healthcare to the doorsteps of Nigerians.
Dr Pounds noted that many developed countries have continued to optimise the evolution of the roles of pharmacists with attendant benefits to their people as reflected in their health indices, and Nigeria has an urgent need to do so.
President, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, commended the steady progress that continues to be recorded to ensure pharmacists are more integral in the country’s primary healthcare regime.
He said more integration of the different healthcare professionals in providing succor to the patient will not only have a salutary effect on universal health access for Nigerians, but have a very positive impact on the nation’s social and economic development.
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