The Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria, ACPN, has urged the Federal Government to, without further delay, appoint administrators to head various agencies, departments, and institutions within the health sector across the country.
This call was made via a statement signed by the national chairman of ACPN, Ambrose Ezeh. The statement was made available to DAILY POST on Saturday.
Ezeh noted that the health sector is currently grappling with a series of crises, including salary disparities, unhealthy rivalries among professionals, and the continued domination of the sector by a particular cadre of professionals, to the detriment of others.
He, therefore, called on the Federal Government to appoint administrators to oversee the various health institutions, agencies, parastatals, and departments, asserting that such appointments would restore sanity to the sector.
Ezeh further stated that administrators were the ones heading health institutions in Nigeria up until 1985. He observed that the sector recorded unprecedented success during that period, when foreigners sought healthcare services in Nigeria.
According to him: “Under the watch of hospital administrators in the 70s and up to the mid 80s, the hospital system was laden with decorum and efficiency especially because health professionals stuck to their areas of due competences. The Health System was so good that foreigners accessed care provisioning in our land. Like we always posit, UCH Ibadan was rated one of the top 5 health facilities in the commonwealth.
“Healthcare administration is in the ideal an autonomous professional calling. This is why trained professional administrators are appointed to head hospitals like we see in other climes.
“This was the norm in Nigeria up to 1985 when late Olukoye Ransome Kuti in alliance with former military President General Ibrahim Babangida who was his erstwhile boss disrupted this ethical order with the infamous and outrageous decree 10 of 1985 which has been manipulated to compel the headship of FHIs by physicians in Nigeria.
“Nigerians should be familiar with the politics of salary and wages in the health sector including the propensities of physicians to negotiate what they want and go ahead to dictate what can accrue to non-physician health professionals and workers. Finally, for Nigeria to forsake the perambulations of many years of fruitlessness in the wilderness of healthcare, the government must embrace holistic reforms grounded in global best practices.”
