NAPHARM inducts new fellows, advocates integration of pharmacists into PHC system

The Nigeria Academy of Pharmacy (NAPHARM) has admitted 15 new fellows and ten life fellows.

At its recent investiture ceremony at the Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos State, Julius Adelusi-Adeluyi, president of NAPHARM, said that the newly inducted pharmacists are united by the quest to propel mankind to new frontiers of wellness and good health.

The inducted pharmacists are from diverse disciplines, including accomplished teachers, researchers and industry practitioners.

Julius Adelusi-Adeluyi, who doubles as chairman of the occasion, said that one of the bedrocks of the Academy is “using pharmaceutical research and development to break new grounds in human progress” for which it employs “strategic advocacy and other means to increase government and societal support for scientific research and pharmaceutical research in particular.”

He noted further that in fulfilling the Academy’s objectives, it 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.”

Speaking on the subject of the imperative of expanding the roles of pharmacists in the area of primary healthcare, the guest speaker,
Theresa Pounds, a clinical practitioner and president of the Nigerian Association of Pharmacists and Pharmaceutical Scientists in the Americas (NAPPSA), decried Nigeria’s dismal health indices, adding that redressing some of the gaps in the country’s primary healthcare regime could help Nigeria to radically enhance these indices.

Pounds added that pharmacists are not only highly-trained, and often at huge cost to the state, but that in addition are the most accessible healthcare provider to the patient.

“Nigeria’s primary healthcare regime would benefit considerably if pharmacists are increasingly integrated into the primary healthcare system,” Pounds said

“Community pharmacies could assist with such initiatives as vaccinations, family planning, health education, among many others, in so doing, complementing the efforts of other healthcare providers and institutions, many of which are over-stretched, in bringing healthcare to the doorsteps of Nigerians.

“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.”

Pounds advocated multisectoral participation in health policy formulation and an increasingly positive attitude by health-functionaries towards teamwork in the health sector, adding that these would have very positive effects on the patient, who is ultimately the reason why all the different health disciplines exist.

Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, president of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), commended the steady progress in integrating pharmacists into the country’s primary healthcare regime, adding that more needed to be done.

“More integration of the different healthcare professionals in providing succour to the patient, he said, would not only have a salutary effect on universal health access for Nigerians but in addition, have a very positive impact on social and economic development,” he added, calling on health professionals to be more disposed towards collaboration,” Ohuabunwa said.

The highpoint of the occasion was the investiture of the new fellows and life fellows of the Academy. Some of the new fellows include John Alfa, chairman of the governing board of the Nigerian Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Development, Ike Uzochukwu, director of research and innovation at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Oluwatoyin Odeku of the University of Ibadan, and others.