Frontpage News (3249)
The Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN) has raised an alarm over what it called “organized quackery in public health institutions,” particularly at the nation’s teaching hospitals and Federal Medical Centres, saying the practice is putting the health of Nigerians at grave danger through wrong “diagnoses.”
The association accused pathologists who it claimed, have abandoned their primary duties of attending to patients as physicians and now jostle as merchants of reagents, chemicals, diagnostics as well as performing medical laboratory testing which is outside their “integral training, licensure and scheme of service.”
Over N14bn worth of Banned Tramadol, Others, Destroyed by Customs, NAFDAC
Poised to continually rid the nation of illicit drugs, smuggled into the country by unscrupulous citizens, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) in conjunction with the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), on Thursday set ablaze about 58 containers of illegally imported tramadol and other illicit drugs worth N14.7 billion.
The Customs operatives had intercepted the smuggled drugs at various points in Lagos and other parts of the country, which warranted the need for the destruction of the hard drugs.
‘In its quest to engage and collaborate with other healthcare providers and patients with a focus on exploring avenues to improve treatment outcomes, the Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN), King Zone, comprising Ifako-Ijaiye, Iju, Agege, and its environs, recently organized its Annual Healthcare Stakeholders Forum 2019.
The 2019 Annual Healthcare Stakeholders Forum, themed: “Health, Wealth and Life – What is my role”, had in attendance eminent personalities and stakeholders in the profession, including Dr Obalolu Ojo, chairman, NAPharm Drug and Substance Abuse Committee; Pharm. Samuel Adekola, national chairman, Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN), Dr Olushola Barnet Amure, chief medical director, Ifako-Ijaye General Hospital; Pharm. (Chief) Olaitan Sunday Ogunlade, zonal chairman, ACPN, King Zone; Pharm. (Mrs) Bolanle Adeniran, chairman, PSN, Lagos State chapter; Pharm. Olabanji Benedict Obideyi, chairman, ACPN, Lagos State chapter, among other participants.
At its plenary on Monday, the Lagos State House of Assembly asked its standing committee on health to probe into the immediate and remote causes of the challenges facing the state’s renal facility.
The move is coming two days after our publication on the moribund multi-billion naira cardiac and renal centre established by the state The probe, a response to the publication, was brought to the attention of the house by its acting chairman of the committee on health, Akeem Sokunle.
INVESTIGATION: Why Lagos govt’s N5.6bn cardio-renal centre remains grounded, in terrible state
The Lagos State Cardiac and Renal Centre, Gbagada, a multi-billion naira health facility, is presumed to be one of the signature legacies of the administration of former governor Babatunde Fashola, neglected by his successor, Akinwunmi Ambode.
But unlike others, the abandonment of this facility has come with a huge cost, especially with the rising statistics of Lagosians, and indeed Nigerians, who are battling with various cardiac and renal diseases.
Amibor, Wannang, Ohuabunwa, Others Urge Hospital Pharmacists to Embrace Innovative Disruptions
Eminent Nigerians and pharmacists among whom were Pharm. (Dr) Kingsley Chiedu Amibor national chairman, Association of Hospital and Administrative Pharmacists of Nigeria (AHAPN); Pharm. (Prof.) Noel Wannang, secretary-general, West African Postgraduate College of Pharmacists (WAPCP); Pharm. (Mazi) Sam Ohuabunwa, president, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) have urged hospital and administrative pharmacists in the country to embrace innovative disruptions not just to remain relevant in the scheme of things but to reposition hospital and administrative practice in the country.
The President of Rotary Club of Wuse Central, Abuja, Dr Mohammed Hassan, has described hepatitis disease as a silent killer in Nigeria and other African countries. He said this during an event organized by Rotary Club to mark the World Hepatitis Day in Abuja.
The event saw the club conducting free hepatitis B and C testing and also inaugurating a motorized borehole water scheme to Wumba community of Apo district in Abuja.
Borno State Governor, Babagana Umara Zulum, in the early hours of Tuesday, paid an unannounced visit to the State Specialist and Umaru Shehu Hospitals, both in Maiduguri.
The governor was disappointed as there was not a single doctor on duty at the time he visited. Also, only a few nurses were on duty. According to DAILY TRUST, “The governor called some of the doctors on phone at the Hospital but none of them answered the call.
The United Nations Children’s Fund, in collaboration with the European Union, has renovated and upgraded seven Primary Health Centres in Adamawa. Dr. Halima Abdu of UNICEF Bauchi Field Office made this known on Monday in Yola at the handing over of one of the health centers in Doubeli Ward of Yola North Local Government Area.
Abdu said that UNICEF had been partnering with the Adamawa government in key sectors of health, nutrition, water, sanitation, hygiene, basic education and child protection.
Basic Health Care: Nigerian govt releases N12.7 billion to three health agencies
The Federal Ministry of Health has disbursed N12.7 billion of the N55 billion one per cent consolidated revenue appropriated in the 2018 budget for Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF).
The fund is a fundamental funding provision under the National Health Act but was only appropriated in 2018 for the first time since the Act was signed in 2014. The Coordinator, Africa Health Budget Network (AHBN), Aminu Magashi, disclosed this during a technical session with health journalists in Abuja on Thursday.
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The Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, has suspended a medical director and four resident doctors, who were not at their duty posts on the night he paid surprise visits to some public hospitals in Maiduguri.
The governor had, on Monday night, paid unscheduled visits to some of the state-owned general hospitals to find out how the health facilities are being run.
The Kwara State Government says it has embarked on vaccination against polio in seven local government areas of the state in response to an outbreak. The Executive Secretary, Kwara State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Abimbola Folorunso, made this known on Thursday in Ilorin.
According to Mrs Folorunso, the local government areas are Asa, Baruten, Ifelodun, Ilorin South, Ilorin West, Ilorin East, and Moro. She explained that the exercise was in view of “circulating derived poliovirus’’ being transmitted in the state.
The Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) has announced plans to elevate its Medicine Information Centre (MIC) to a National Drug & Poison Information, Emergency Response and Research Centre, which will be a coordinating centre to responses on suicide attempts, rehabilitation of drug addicts and people injured by poisons.
Speaking with newsmen at a media parley organised to unveil this plan on Monday in Lagos, Dr John Nwaiwu, chairman, PSN Project Committee stated that the centre, which will be located at the Pharmacy Towers to be built in the Central Business District, Victoria Island will also offer hope of survival to victims exposed to the untoward effects of drugs, substance of abuse and poisons through counselling and referral when necessary.
Nigeria has graduated from a transit country for illicit addiction drugs to a manufacturing hub, and addressing this new challenge and its attendant growing security impacts on the nation will require more proactive measures and better collaboration of all relevant government agencies, Pharm. N.A.E. Mohammed, registrar, Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN), has said.
Speaking recently in Abuja to participants of the Executive Intelligence Management Course (EIMC) 12 of the Institute of Security Studies, Abuja, Mohammed disclosed that the recent discovery of methamphetamine laboratories in some parts of Nigeria is a proof that the country has indeed become a center for the production of addictive drugs.
