The Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, PSN, has called for an amendment of the Teaching Hospital Act to pave the way for a robust health system.
The Chairman of the Lagos State chapter of the PSN, Mr. Gbolagade Iyiola made the appeal at a luncheon in Lagos.
Mr. Iyiola said that such amendment should pave the way for seasoned administrators to mange the hospitals as was the case prior to 1985.
He said that the reason teaching hospitals are in an abysmal state was because of the phrase “medically qualified” that is in the Act.
According to him, the phrase has been manipulated to mean that only physicians can head the institutions.
Mr. Iyiola recalled that in the days when seasoned administrators managed the hospitals they were performing very well and cited the University College Hospital, Ibadan that was then ranked among the top five in the Common Wealth with even the Saudi royal family coming there for treatment.
Meanwhile the PSN has demanded that the Lagos State government establish a Faculty of Pharmacy.
Mr. Iyiola said that call was based on the need for an expanded pharmaceutical manpower that is key to quality health-care delivery.
According to him, Lagos State has what it takes to establish the Faculty and that doing so will lead to an improvement in pharmaceutical manpower that will cater for the needs of people in hard to reach rural areas, manufacturing of drugs and photomedicines.
Besides, he said that the Faculty would produce academic pharmacists who would teach what they practice.
He said that a Faculty of Pharmacy could ultimately lead to the setting up of a well funded Drug Research and Production Unit that would increase the internally generated revenue of the state government.
By Fabian Anawo
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