Employ more pharmacists, association tells FG, states 

National Chairman of the Association of Hospital & Administrative Pharmacists of Nigeria (AHAPN), Elechi Oyim, has called on federal, state and local governments to employ more pharmacists in public health facilities. 
  
Reacting to recent approval by President Bola Tinubu for the employment of 50 medical doctors and 100 nurses in Nigerian Correctional Services (formerly the Nigerian Prison Services), the AHAPN chairman argued that pharmacists were supposed to be included in all health facilities since drug use, storage and administration required the professional input of pharmacists.
  
The chairman also lamented the recent exclusion of pharmacists by some health facilities during their recruitment exercises and wondered why and how drugs could be used without pharmacists. 
  
He said the recent approval of Pharmacists’ Consultant Cadre by the federal and some state governments had further buttressed the importance of pharmacists. 
  
He said: “Today, most of our hospitals and other health facilities are witnessing the dearth of pharmacists, worsened by the Japa syndrome involving health workers, including pharmacists. 
  
He said: “Today, there are no adequate pharmacists to man our dispensaries, and as such patients are denied their basic rights of being counselled, and are not provided the drug education and information salient for proper drug administration in line with rational drug uses. 
  
“The dearth of pharmacists in most centres has increased the risk of medication among our clients. This is one of the contributors to Drug Therapy Failures & Drug Resistance.”