By Asmau Ahmad
The Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, said Public Private Partnership (PPP) in health is a cornerstone in accelerating healthcare infrastructure development and delivery of quality, accessible and affordable healthcare.
Speaking at a workshop on best hospital pharmacy practice in Nigeria organised by the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN), represented by Director PPP in the ministry, Dr. Bola Olowu, minister noted that such partnership will bridge the infrastructure development gap and services.
Professor Adewole further said that it would as well provide new strategic opportunities to add value to existing healthcare delivery system in Nigeria.
He explained that for the nation to realise its economic potentials it needs increases in health investments from public and private sectors in all levels of services from primary clinics to hospitals to medical supplies and pharmaceuticals.
He said: “Private sector already accounts for almost two thirds of healthcare delivered in Nigeria. The public sector is not living up to expectation, strike actions, poor clinical governance, lack of state of the art medical equipment and perennial out-of stock syndrome of drugs and other essential commodities.
“This has resulted in patients seeking alternative care outside the country thus encouraging outward medical tourism. The present administration is committed to mobilising private sector resources for investments. We hope that this will facilitate the reversal of the trend of outward medical tourism and thus making Nigeria the hub for healthcare destination.”
Adewole urged all health practitioners to imbibe best practices in their various professions and improve standard of practice as well as service provision.
Similarly, the PCN Registrar, Mr. Elijah Mohammed, identified best hospital pharmacy practices to include helping patients make the best use of medications.
Mr. Mohammed advised pharmacists not to only concern about provision of drugs but the outcomes of pharmacy services which he noted as the wellbeing of their patients.
He said some elements of pharmacy services critical to safe effective and cost-conscious medication use to include optimising medical therapy, medication delivery, research and monitoring medication use.
