‘Pharmacy technologists, technicians inadequate in Nigeria’

National President, National Association of Pharmaceutical Technologists and Pharmacy Technicians of Nigeria, Mr Adetola Balogun, has bemoaned inadequate staffing of some public and private health facilities in the country, calling on government and owners of private health facilities to employ pharmaceutical technologists and pharmacy technicians.

Balogun made this call against the backdrop of what he called a worrisome trend whereby other non-professionals were taking up the roles of professional pharmaceutical technologists and technicians.

Speaking at the mandatory continuing education programme (MCEP) for the South West zone of the association, Balogun appealed to employers in the health sector to prevent further escalation of the development by engaging the services of only registered pharmaceutical technologists and pharmacy technicians with valid permit.

He added that engagement of only professionals guaranteed that government and other employers of labour do not compromise the health of Nigerians.

“In pharmacy, we have so many departments. We have some responsible for patients, others for packaging and operations, and so on. From our findings, we have discovered that there are some places that they need to have about five to 10 people working in such facilities, but have only one or two.

“Our job entails shifting. Some of us work morning duty, others in the afternoon and night. We got reports that in some facilities, they have to collapse morning and afternoon, that is, a person that is supposed to work for morning hours and go home, will have to cover afternoon hours before the person for the night duty comes to take over. We are making that sacrifice because we deal with drugs and other prescriptions, the next point of call.

“We have discovered that this problem of inadequate personnel is all over the country, not only in government, even in the private establishments also. But the facilities that we have visited are owned by the government. In those facilities, rather than having 10 to 15 pharmaceutical technologists and pharmacy technicians, we found out that three or four were there.

“Moreover, some are leaving the service after the mandatory 35 years in service. When they retire, there is nobody to take over because the  government did not employ.

“That’s why I made that appeal that they should do the needful because in as much as they say health is wealth, if you are supposed to work for eight hours and you find yourself to be there for more than 12 hours, definitely, it will affect your health and when that happens and you break down, who will take over from you? So, if we have enough staff in those facilities, there won’t be any problem.”