Doctors and Pharmacists in the country are entangled in a fresh altercation over an age-long struggle over the professional mandate to prescribe drugs in an ideal situation.

In separate interviews with LEADERSHIP yesterday, both the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) and Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) gave reasons to justify their claims over the right to prescribe drugs.

President of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), Prof Innocent Ujah, triggered the contention when he said it was not appropriate to completely blame the rising cases of self-medication in the country on industrial action by members of the medical union and outbreak of COVID-19.

Rather, he said it should be partly put on the doorsteps of pharmacists who illegally prescribe drugs to patient against the normal procedures.

“If you go to pharmacists, they are even prescribing drugs. This is unethical. When you go with your prescription, their own is to sell drugs to you but they are prescribing. They are exercising the power that doctors have and it is lacking competence”, Prof Ujah said.

The chairman of NMA in Kwara State, Prof Issa Baba and a senior lecturer in the department of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Ilorin, Dr Ghali Alaaya, were unanimous in their submissions that pharmacists have no business in drug prescription for patients.

Baba and Alaaya maintained that only medical doctors are qualified to prescribe drugs for patients.

The duo also traced the causes of self -medication to many factors, including poverty, ignorance, the desire by pharmacists to sell their drugs and make money as well as inadequate healthcare facilities.

But in a swift reaction, the Registrar of Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN), Pharm Elijah Mohammed, accused doctors of taking over the responsibility of pharmacists, saying that doctors who are meant to only prescribe medication are now dispensing as well.

According to him, pharmacists are also prescribing drugs to patients because doctors have refused stick to their practice.

He said, “The doctor is to prescribe and the pharmacist is to dispense, but in Nigeria today, you have dispensing doctors and prescribing pharmacists. When a patient come to the doctor, he prescribes and he dispenses, so what do you want the pharmacist to do? Should they close their shops?

“But when you go to UK and USA, the medical doctor prescribes then the pharmacists will dispense. If that is maintained, when a patient comes to the pharmacy, thepharmacist will ask them to go and get prescription. But now that the doctors are prescribing and dispensing, what do they expect the pharmacists to do? The pharmacist know what the drug is all about then when the patient comes, they will do the needful.”

Mohammed however called for support to tackle open drug market, saying that the present government has come with a coordinated wholesale centre concept whereby they want to create an environment that is well regulated and move these drug traders into those places.

According to him, once that is done, all the markets will be shut, and whoever that is coming to buy drug, will be asked where he is taking it to.

He continued: “We should stop blaming ourselves. Although it was formally known for distributive functions, latest experiences have shown that pharmacists in all settings are now involved in health promotion, disease-state management, and pharmaceutical care, as well as both collaborative and independent prescribing.

“As our roles have evolved to become more clinically focused, prescribing has become a logical extension of the provision of comprehensive pharmaceutical care”.

For more, consult: https://leadership.ng/2020/09/15/doctors-pharmacists-wrangle-over-drug-prescription/

Both of them can prescribe but the pharmacist is more appropriate. Doctors are to carry out diagnosis and say what a patient is suffering from.

Doctors are solely responsible for surgery.

My opinion though.

Brilliant submissions I must confess.

I think having affordable private health insurance packages will take care of most of the points you have raised. Such insurance companies will insist on certain minimum procedural compliance for payout. For instance, they can insist on their clients doing at lease one general medical checkup in a year, registering with designated medical doctors, as well as insisting on getting medications supplied at designated registered pharmacies. Laboratory tests and all that should equally insist on reports generated from pre-certified laboratories.

flyingpig:
Poverty follow dey cause am.

Ordinary Mama wey dey sell Akara you wan make she go private hospital to see Doctor, folder alone na 10k cash, you never see Doctor oh.

Las las the prescribed drugs fit be 5k worth, worse worse na ulcer kit or malaria/typhoid. Instead of to pay these folder fee, consultation fee and other exorbittant prices, they swiftly rush to the Pharmacist who has got the knowledge of drugs and won't charge you for folder, consultation, and et cetera.

There is not a one-way solution to this. But I suggest:

1. Increasing standard of living or alleviating poverty, so public can afford various public or private hospital bills.

2. Then heavy awareness to sensitize the public on the importance of having medical records/folder from the Doctor, instead of just rushing off at the Pharmacist to obtain temporal relief from your ailment.

3. Liasing with Pharmacists and Doctors to strictly play their respective roles only. No more "prescribing Pharmacists" and "Dispensing Doctors" . But Doctors shouldn't make this all about Pharmacists because they Doctors many times, play the roles of medical laboratory scientists and as well play roles of Pharmacists in some hospitals especially private hospitals.

Patient will pay for test in private hospital, but Doctor will be the one to carry out the staining, incubation, and observation of test under a microscope to detect the organism. Meanwhile this is the perfect role of the medical laboratory scientist and the Doctor should have employed him to do such.

So like I said, all of them should go back to their respective quarters. It's not about Pharmacists only.

4. One requirement is consistent in all these points above; Government's intervention.

Simplyleo:
Both of them can prescribe but the pharmacist is more appropriate. Doctors are to carry out diagnosis and say what a patient is suffering from.

Doctors are solely responsible for surgery.

My opinion though.

olodo. do you know more than the registrar of pharmacy council that said doctors should prescribe and pharmacists dipense. we have abnormal situation in Nigeria. no doctor should dispense drugs and no pharmacist should prescribe. that is standard practice.

flyingpig:
Poverty follow dey cause am.

Ordinary Mama wey dey sell Akara you wan make she go private hospital to see Doctor, folder alone na 10k cash, you never see Doctor oh.

Las las the prescribed drugs fit be 5k worth, worse worse na ulcer kit or malaria/typhoid. Instead of to pay these folder fee, consultation fee and other exorbittant prices, they swiftly rush to the Pharmacist who has got the knowledge of drugs and won't charge you for folder, consultation, and et cetera.

There is not a one-way solution to this. But I suggest:

1. Increasing standard of living or alleviating poverty, so public can afford various public or private hospital bills.

2. Then heavy awareness to sensitize the public on the importance of having medical records/folder from the Doctor, instead of just rushing off at the Pharmacist to obtain temporal relief from your ailment.

3. Liasing with Pharmacists and Doctors to strictly play their respective roles only. No more "prescribing Pharmacists" and "Dispensing Doctors" . But Doctors shouldn't make this all about Pharmacists because they Doctors many times, play the roles of medical laboratory scientists and as well play roles of Pharmacists in some hospitals especially private hospitals.

Patient will pay for test in private hospital, but Doctor will be the one to carry out the staining, incubation, and observation of test under a microscope to detect the organism. Meanwhile this is the perfect role of the medical laboratory scientist and the Doctor should have employed him to do such.

So like I said, all of them should go back to their respective quarters. It's not about Pharmacists only.

4. One requirement is consistent in all these points above; Government's intervention.

are u aware there mls is allied profession to medicine unlike pharmacy and nursing? pathologists are doctors who specialize in art and science in laboratory medicine.

https://www.careerexplorer.com/careers/pathologist/

bizme:
Brilliant submissions I must confess.

I think having affordable private health insurance packages will take care of most of the points you have raised. Such insurance companies will insist on certain minimum procedural compliance for payout. For instance, they can insist on their clients doing at lease one general medical checkup in a year, registering with designated medical doctors, as well as insisting on getting medications supplied at designated registered pharmacies. Laboratory tests and all that should equally insist on reports generated from pre-certified laboratories.

some mls are prescribing drugs after performing tests which is wrong.
My prediction is crisis is health sector will become escalated before serious healthcare reform in line with international standard.

joyandfaith:


are u aware there mls is allied profession to medicine unlike pharmacy and nursing? pathologists are doctors who specialize in art and science in laboratory medicine.

https://www.careerexplorer.com/careers/pathologist/

Mls is never an allied profession to medicine..... its high time you wakeup from your sleep....
https://college.mayo.edu/academics/explore-health-care-careers/careers-a-z/medical-laboratory-scientist/

beamtopola:

Mls is never an allied profession to medicine..... its high time you wakeup from your sleep....
https://college.mayo.edu/academics/explore-health-care-careers/careers-a-z/medical-laboratory-scientist/

you do not know meaning of allied health professionals.olodo. only nursing and pharmacy are not allied to medicine

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_health_professions

Anesthesia technician
Anesthesiologist assistant
Art therapist / art psychotherapist
Athletic trainer
Audiologist
Autotransfusionist
Cardiovascular technologist
Chaplain
Chiropractor
Clinical laboratory scientist
Clinical neurophysiology
Clinical officer
Communicative Disorders Assistant
Dental hygienist
Dental therapist
Denturist / clinical dental technician
Dietitian / nutritionist
Electrocardiogram technician
Emergency medical technician
Environmental health officer / public health inspector
Exercise physiologist
Lactation consultant
Massage therapist
Medical assistant
Medical coder
Medical interpreter
Medical laboratory scientist
Medical radiation scientist
Medical scribe
Medical transcriptionist
Midwife
Music therapist
Occupational therapist
Operating department practitioner
Optometrist
Orthoptist
Orthotist / prosthetist
Osteopathy
Paramedic
Pedorthist
Perfusionist
Pharmacy Technician [1]
Phlebotomist
Psychologist
Physical therapist / physiotherapist
Podiatrist
Public health epidemiologist
Radiographer (or radiology technologist; includes specialist radiographers, e.g. angiographer, mammographer, etc.)
Radiotherapist / radiation therapist / medical dosimetrist
Recreational therapist
Rehabilitation Technician
Rehabilitation counselor
Renal dialysis technologist [3]
Respiratory therapist
Social workers
Sonographer (often, but not always, state-registered
radiographers )
Speech and language pathologist
Sterile processing technician
Surgical technologist

.

joyandfaith:


you do not know meaning of allied health professionals.olodo. only nursing and pharmacy are not allied to medicine

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_health_professions

Anesthesia technician
Anesthesiologist assistant
Art therapist / art psychotherapist
Athletic trainer
Audiologist
Autotransfusionist
Cardiovascular technologist
Chaplain
Chiropractor
Clinical laboratory scientist
Clinical neurophysiology
Clinical officer
Communicative Disorders Assistant
Dental hygienist
Dental therapist
Denturist / clinical dental technician
Dietitian / nutritionist
Electrocardiogram technician
Emergency medical technician
Environmental health officer / public health inspector
Exercise physiologist
Lactation consultant
Massage therapist
Medical assistant
Medical coder
Medical interpreter
Medical laboratory scientist
Medical radiation scientist
Medical scribe
Medical transcriptionist
Midwife
Music therapist
Occupational therapist
Operating department practitioner
Optometrist
Orthoptist
Orthotist / prosthetist
Osteopathy
Paramedic
Pedorthist
Perfusionist
Pharmacy Technician [1]
Phlebotomist
Psychologist
Physical therapist / physiotherapist
Podiatrist
Public health epidemiologist
Radiographer (or radiology technologist; includes specialist radiographers, e.g. angiographer, mammographer, etc.)
Radiotherapist / radiation therapist / medical dosimetrist
Recreational therapist
Rehabilitation Technician
Rehabilitation counselor
Renal dialysis technologist [3]
Respiratory therapist
Social workers
Sonographer (often, but not always, state-registered
radiographers )
Speech and language pathologist
Sterile processing technician
Surgical technologist

You re a big fool.... you spend 30minutes on google just to paste these rubbish.....

beamtopola:

You re a big fool.... you spend 30minutes on google just to paste these rubbish.....

Moderator please take note He addresses someone as a " big fool"

beamtopola:

You re a big fool.... you spend 30minutes on google just to paste these rubbish.....

empty brain