Pharmacists Council urges members to uphold ethical practices

The Pharmacy Council of Nigeria (PCN) has appealed to its members on the importance of upholding ethical practices in their field in other to save lives in line with the oath they took during their induction ceremony as well as to avoid the sanctions of the pharmacy disciplinary tribunal.

They made this appeal during a sitting of the disciplinary tribunal at the PCN complex at Yaba, Lagos to deliberate and pass judgment on up to 10 different cases forwarded by the pharmacy investigation panel.

Chairman of, governing board, PCN, Prof. Ahmed Tijjani Mora, who is also the Chairman, the Disciplinary Tribunal of Pharmacy Council of Nigeria, said it is important to know that the profession of Pharmacy is governed by series of ethics and code of conducts. He added that pharmacists practitioners are suppose to preserve themselves and anything short of that will attract the sanction of the PCN, therefore, they have to ensure that the premises that are licensed by the Council are accessible to citizens to procure pharmaceutical care.

Mora appealed to Nigerian pharmacists to look into oath that they have taken during their induction and to ensure they implement all the elements of oath they took during the induction ceremony to ensure they practice ethically because anything short of ethical practice in Pharmacy will attract the wrath of the PCN. “It is not a difficult thing to do because they have been trained and taught pharmacy ethics in the university over a number of years,” he said.

Mora told The Guardian that there were about 10 cases that were forwarded from the investigative panel and so as the disciplinary tribunal, they will look at them and make recommendations, pass judgments and adjourn some of the cases. He said: “Some of the cases we have here today are for cheer misconduct, misuse of funds, and manufacture of pharmaceutical products which has been found to be unwholesome while some persons presented here today have breached trust with respect to their vocation.”
“Sanctions ranges from fines to striking the name of the Pharmacists from the register of pharmacists for a number of years and these are supposed to be deterrent.”

The Chairman explained that the PCN established ACT 2022 has provided for investigation panel and also the disciplinary tribunal so cases where there has been a professional misconduct or activities falling short of ethics of profession are invited to the investigation panel that will investigate the cases or allegations and decide on some while others will be forwarded to the disciplinary tribunal.

“We have done a lot over the years trying to sanitize the profession as it were and any Pharmacist who has been registered and licensed by the PCN is subject to be corrected through the solidary of the disciplinary tribunal so it is corrective and we have corrected more pharmacists over time,” he said.

Speaking on how often the tribunal sits, Mora said: “The tribunal sits whenever we have enough cases forwarded from the investigative panel since the governing council was reconstituted in June 2020 by President Muhammad Buhari and it took up to five years to be reconstituted so there are so many cases that has to be attended to by the investigation panel and then forwarded to the disciplinary tribunal. The disciplinary tribunal on its own cannot just sit; cases have to be referred from the investigation panel.”

One of the pharmacists under trial, Okwum Chinedum said the charge against him borders on imbalance reconciliation after selling drugs for a pharmaceutical company and finding it difficult to pay due to the nature of the payment pattern, so they took it to the investigation panel who then forwarded it to the tribunal. He said: “The tribunal tries to find out the reason you are not able to pay and if there is need to pressure you to pay and they do that by firstly confiscating your license because it is only with the license that you can be able to do your annual registration and earn money for the year.”

Chinedum also appealed to the PCN to look into some of the activities of pharmaceutical companies and their mode of operations. He said: “I want to use this opportunity to advice young pharmacists that are just graduating on what is actually outside base on companies and how they operate. PCN should look into some of the activities of these companies not just be involved when the issue has already arise, they should also be able to see it at the beginning so as to prevent some certain things because some of us did not really know what was involved we just needed jobs and took up jobs and we do not really know accounting.”