New Telegraph

Private sector accounts for 58% health services provision in Nigeria –PCN

The Registrar, Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN), Elijah Mohammed, has revealed that 58% of health services in the country were provided by the private sector. Mohammed made the disclosure yesterday in Abuja, at the IntegratE Media Roundtable Agenda, organized by Nigeria Health Watch with the theme; “The IntegratE Project – The Role of Community Pharmacists and Private and Proprietary Medicine Vendors in Expanding Family Planning Services in Nigeria.’ According to him, the majority of young women from the age of 25, usually obtain their Family Planning (FP) methods from Community Pharmacists (CPs) and Patent and Proprietary Medicine Vendors (PPMVs).

He said: “While PPMVs are especially popular for FP due to their widespread availability, location in the community, consistent drug stocks, extended hours, personable interactions and free consultation services, they are often responsible for prevalent suboptimal care in the health sector.

“Consequently, because of their poor-quality services occasioned by poor skills and knowledge, PPMVs have not been streamlined into the formal health system by the public sector and government, which impacts on timely referrals and follow-on treatments. Pharmacists, who should be the healthcare professionals in charge of safe and effective medication use, are insufficient to serve the entire country’s population.”

The Registrar further announced that PCN was able to build capacity to develop an accredited patent proprietary medicine vendor model for Nigeria to improve regulation of the private sector medicines outlets and ultimately improve access to quality services and medicines, through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), MSH LaunchDSI grant to facilitate the development, implementation and scaleup of accredited drug sellers’ initiatives in 2016.

“The IntegratE project, implemented by a consortium led by the Society of Family Health (SFH) and co-funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and MSD for Mothers has, since 2017, been working with the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) to broaden its tasksharing and task-shifting (TSTS) policy by piloting a 3-Tier accreditation system, led by the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) to test a task-shifting model in underserved areas of Lagos and Kaduna States with the view to future scale-up.

“Implemented with unparalleled support of stakeholders at the Federal, State, Local Government Area (LGA) and the communities themselves, this 4-year journey has been very fruitful and rewarding, throwing valuable lessons and insights along the way.

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