Over 100 medicine stores have been shut down by the Pharmaceutical Inspectorate Committee (PIC) in Kogi State.
Dr Lawal Muhammed Omuya, the Kogi State Vice Chairman of PIC, disclosed this on Monday in a statement to mark this year’s World Pharmacist Day with the theme “Pharmacists Strengthening the Health System.”
Dr Omuya, who also serves as the State Chairman of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), noted that PIC in Kogi State draws its membership from the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Pharmacy Council of Nigeria (PCN), and staff of the State Ministry of Health using the instruments of PCN.
He explained that the body carried out the operation between January and September 2023, adding that the body is working around the clock to put an end to quackery in Kogi State.
“Quackery in pharmaceutical practice can be looked at from a professional and facility angle.
The professional angle has to do with people who are non-pharmacists, both educated and non-educated, presenting themselves as pharmacists in society and thereby carrying out or attempting to carry out the role of a pharmacist.
“On the other hand, we are also looking at facilities that exist in the community that are illegal and not in good standing with pharmacy practice.
These are drug stores that are stocked to the brim, giving an erroneous impression of a pharmacy as people patronise them, thinking that these are registered pharmacies where they could get quality drugs and pharmaceutical services.
“We are currently addressing quackery on these two bases. The Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, in collaboration with the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria, through the Pharmaceutical Inspectorate Committee, established in all 36 states of the federation, including FCT, goes out routinely for monitoring and inspection to ensure that we tackle this problem of quackery we have in our society.
You will agree with me that this will require a lot of resources.
“When we go on routine monitoring and inspection and discover that a facility is existing illegally, it is outright shut down and sealed.
Then, those that do not exist illegally but are licenced by the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria to provide practice pharmaceutical services to the community but are falling short of the standard they are expected to operate will be given what we call a ‘compliance directive’ within a specific time frame for them to meet up.
“If they are unable to meet up, we shut them down too. These are measures that we put in place to ensure that we have sanity in healthcare delivery.
Individuals who are not supposed to be involved in pharmaceutical practice are made to face the full wrath of the law when they are caught.
This is what led to shutting down over 100 medicine stores operating illegally and also arresting those who are quacks in the system within this year.”
He used this medium to appeal to the Kogi State Government to collaborate with PSN and PCN to ensure that their activities can be carried out more effectively and efficiently by providing security, means of transport, and other logistic needs for their operations.
On this year’s World Pharmacist Day, the Kogi State PSN explained that pharmacists help to reduce healthcare costs and waste and improve health outcomes, including value for Nigerians’ money.
While admonishing Kogites to always consult pharmacists on drug matters, Dr Omuya posited that pharmacists strengthen the health system through optimisation of medication use and also reduce medication-related burden, thereby strengthening the health system of the nation.
World Pharmacists Day, which is observed on September 25th annually, marks the anniversary of the inception of the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) in 1912 and was adopted by the FIP Council in 2009.
It was gathered that the World Pharmacists Day campaign is led by FIP every year, with the theme chosen by the FIP Bureau.
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