The Pharmacist Society Nigeria, Lagos State chapter, has called on the government at the federal and state levels to give more attention to the various infrastructure in healthcare, saying it is a priority area in the public interest.
In a statement jointly signed by its chairman, Oyekunle Babayemi and secretary, Tosin Adeyemi, the body said the infrastructural deficit in the health sector needed to be tackled headlong.
The PSN also sympathised with the family of Dr. Diaso Vwaere while describing her death totally as avoidable and unnecessary.
It however urged the Lagos State Government to begin to fix critical infrastructural decay in alignment with its perceived status as the Centre of Excellence in Nigeria.
The statement partly read, “Our critical evaluation of this unwarranted death remains that it was totally avoidable and unnecessary. It is a waste of our scarce top-notch specialised skill in the nation as well as constitutes a huge disincentive to our teeming youths at a time a vast majority of them have a mindset that nothing good comes out of their country.
“After our usual painstaking appraisal, the PSN (Lagos) wishes to posit that the glaring infrastructural deficit in general at the national level which is put at over $1tn and more specifically the $200m in the health sector alone needs to be tackled headlong from now on.
“The LASG in particular must initiate progressive steps to begin to fix critical infrastructural decay in alignment with its perceived status as the Centre of Excellence in Nigeria. In this regard, the various infrastructure in healthcare must be given more attention because it is always a priority area in the public interest.”
The pharmaceutical body also frowned upon the demand of the state chapter of the Nigeria Medical Association that accommodation should be provided for only House-Officer Physicians even in the death of a critical personnel.
This is as it asked the state government to immediately construct befitting hospital quarters where all essential health workers who take call duties and emergency services can live, adding that anything outside of it would amount to postponing the evil day.
With regard to the ongoing strike, the PSN said it was assessing the next levels associated with the development.
It said, “Two wrongs never make a right and if government erred in poor management of infrastructure, it is certainly not the best to “retaliate” by embarking on needless strikes which only inflict pains on the poor and vulnerable. Finally, this discourse gives the LASG and the FG yet another opportunity to shape the destiny of healthcare in our country.
“The global trend is for seasoned administrators and managers of cognate experience to superintend health facilities as CEOs. This gives ample opportunities to health professionals including Pharmacists, Physicians, Medical Laboratory Scientists, Physiotherapists and others to dedicate quality time to their areas of core competence. All health professionals who have a desire to be CEO of health facilities must be compelled to take up postgraduate programmes in Administration and Management of Hospital and Health Systems”, the statement added.
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