Clinical pharmacists fault minister, others on teaching hospitals bill

Clinical Pharmacists Association of Nigeria (CPAN) has tackled Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) and Association of Provosts of Colleges of Medicine in Nigeria (APCOM) for allegedly opposing the Teaching Hospitals Amendment bill.

Titled “A bill for an Act to amend the University Teaching Hospitals (Reconstitution of Boards) Act, Cap U15 LFN 2004”, the piece of legislation was sponsored by member representing Ede North/Ede South/Egbedore/Ejigbo Federal Constituency of Osun State, Bamidele Sala.

Ehanire, at the public hearing of a bill for the amendment of the University Teaching hospitals (UTHs) Act by the House Committee on Health Institutions in Abuja, on Wednesday, expressed reservations about the bill aimed at reviewing the composition of the governing board of the institutions.

The minister argued that the passage of the piece of legislation would lead to a huge disruption in the health sector. He added that it would worsen the brain drain syndrome being experienced in the country and lower the standard of healthcare services.

But CPAN’s National Chairman, Dr. Joseph Madu, told The Guardian, yesterday, said his association sees the call or bill for a reform in the process of appointing hospital heads in Nigeria as a heroic one.

He reasoned that no well-exposed and informed person should oppose the move.

Madu said: “CPAN hereby advocates that the National Assembly should as a matter of urgency and necessity as well as obligation, amend and pass the bill as sponsored by Hon. Salam in the interest of Nigerians, to usher in growth, competition, comparison and leapfrogging of Nigeria’s health index on the international space.”

The clinical pharmacist observed that minister ought not to be “partisan.”

The professional added: “Let him give examples from other parts of the world where what he is supporting is the norm.

He said the teaching hospitals are for the training of medical students. Are medical students not trained in other climes where the CEOs of hospitals are non-physicians? Is Nigeria’s health sector where physicians have been the heads of hospitals since 1985 better than those climes that do not accept this analogue mentality? Is the training of medical students more important than the health of Nigerians and other health workers’ welfare?

“He complained about brain drain but forgot that it started since the heads of Nigeria’s hospitals started being only physicians. We had no brain drain before the year 1985. This statement from the minister is highly biased towards the professionals of his own constituency. As the Minister of Health, he is not expected to be biased on an issue that affects the different disciplines under his ministry.”

Madu said CPAN finds it difficult understanding the statements credited to both MDCAN and APCOM in various news media about the health bill, claiming that physician-led hospitals are universally better managed than those presided over by non-physicians led

“We hereby state that such claims lack verifiable evidence and are aimed at misinforming the general public and our lawmakers,” he stated.

The clinical pharmacist clarified that CPAN was not opposed to any particular professional healthcare group members being heads of the nation’s university teaching tertiary hospitals, but pointed out that it was deeply concerned about the continued deleterious outcome of sacrificing competence and merit on the altar of ego of a certain group of Nigeria’s health care professionals.