Accra, March 17, Ghanadot/GNA – Vice President John Dramani
Mahama on Tuesday admitted that West Africa faced a
challenge in the pharmacy sector and needed to streamline
its operations to preserve the quality of life in the Sub
Region.
He said pharmacy played a critical role in health delivery and
noted that the task of a pharmacist was to ensure that a drug
therapy was appropriately indicated, the most effectively
available, the safest possible, and convenient for the patient.
Speaking at the 21st Annual General Meeting, 51st Council
meeting and Induction of 50 fellows into the West Africa
Postgraduate College of Pharmacists (WAPCP) in Accra, he said a
little mistake could jeopardize the lives of patients and that
made the pharmacist a rare professional.
The meeting was on the theme; “Challenges of Pharmacy in
improving Quality of Life in West the African Sub-Region”
Apart from Stock taking, the AGM would school fellows on topics
such as sustainable financing for the new malaria drug policy
and Pharmacy and Health-related Millennium Development Goals.
Vice President Mahama noted the limited numbers in the
profession paved way for untrained people to fill the gap in the
rural areas adding, that could be disastrous.
He was of the view that pharmacists were a bridge between other
health professionals and patients because they were very often
the first specialists that patients meet especially in the
communities and the last to be seen for their medications.
He therefore called for training of chemical sellers and those
who man chemists in the absence of pharmacists and urged them to
value the health of their clients first.
He said efforts to build the capacity of local drug
manufacturers would be accelerated and that his office would
liaise with the Minister of Health to assist.
The Minister of Health, Dr George Sepah Yankey acknowledged
problems of repayment of monies to the National Health Insurance
Scheme (NHIS) and said the ministry would soon come out with
software that would ensure that claims were sent electronically
for prompt payment.
He noted that pharmacists should ensure that drugs were
accessible in the right quality and its efficacy proven and
urged professionals to move away from its original focus on
manufacturing of medicines and supply towards a more inclusive
focus on patient care.
“I believe that the focus of deliberation will be to identify
and address the components of health that affected pharmacy in
realizing the millennium development Goals (MDGs)”, he said.
Professor Mahama Duwiejua, Dean, faculty of Pharmacy and
Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah university of Science and
Technology (KNUST) asked members to be concerned about the
menace of fake and counterfeit drugs in the region and improve
access to affordable quality medicines.
He said equally important was the threat to the sustainability
of NHIS and it impacts on the quality of life and expressed
worry about the majority of people who had no access to quality
and affordable pharmaceutical care.
He noted that there were also real challenges outside the
control of pharmacy and urged government to collaborate more
with pharmacists because it was an embarrassing that after over
40 years of pharmacy education at the degree level in the
sub-region about 70 percent of medicines used were imported.
He charged pharmacists and regulatory bodies to be warriors
against fake and counterfeit medicines and be more vigilant.
Dr Alex Dodoo, President, Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana said
it was the dream of and aspiration of the society for all the
three pharmacy Training institutions in the country to offer the
six year Programmes in the specific areas of pharmacy to equip
all graduates not just in pharmacy skills but with business and
or in public health training for them to contribute to the
improvement of health care in the sub-region and beyond.
GNA
