Patronage of unlicensed operators: Why addressing the deficits in Nigeria’s health sector is sacrosanct

The subject of health is one phenomenon which bears significant resonance in the schemes of affairs in any organised society. The direct and indirect nexus that the state of health bears on every other sphere of human endeavour remains strongly overbearing. It is incontestable that a good health profile or otherwise of the population of any nation, bears proportional links to the profile of socio-economic and political performance of note. The state of the health sector in Nigeria remains a subject of discourse among pressing matters of national concern.

In this analytical vein, the narrative of the state of Nigeria’s health sector apparently bends strongly to the negative than the positive. The sector is one characterized with varying features of note, which themselves are enough subjects of discourse with reflections of decolourising stamps of untoward accounts. Several subjects of deficiencies manifesting with strongholds in the sector have lasted too long over the years, without the required attention to fix them into shape. Matters of infrastructure decay, poor working conditions, brain drain, illegal operations and lack of coordinated policies are among others, critical subjects of concern in the sector. While each of these deficiencies has grown to become deficient issues of concern in the sector, the phenomenon of illegal operations has continued to expand its tentacles across the Federation.

It is a subject of note that the increasing population explosion in the Country demands corresponding provisions of infrastructures within the health sector. However, the failure of the Government to galvanised resources towards this end has left huge deficits which have continued to generate wings of off-shooting deficiencies within the sector. The poor coordination of resources to build a virile sector to sufficiently cater for the pressing need according to population growth, is a reflection of administrative and political shortfall which has left lacunas that are been exploited by opportunists over the years.

The preponderance of illegal operations in terms of unlicensed pharmaceutical ventures and hospitals or what is better described as “local care-homes” is one subject which calls for attention. The risk posed before the Country in terms of the increasing resort to unlicensed health ventures is a threat to a healthy population, and since it only takes a healthy population to drive socio-economic and political development, it is imperative that attention be turned into these threats to healthcare delivery in the Country. The failure of the existing health infrastructures in the Country to cater for the demands of the increasing population has continued to be a source of worry pitching the population to resort to self-help and patronage of unlicensed ventures in search of desperate solutions to health challenges.

The proliferation of adulterated, fake and expired drugs in the Country has continued to take a strong turn across the Country, while the operations of illegal medical outfits have continued to spread expansively. The deficit in the existing health infrastructures to cater for health emergencies is continuously opening the chances for illegal operations by unlicensed persons to take turn on the populace. This has lamentably created the gap for illegal operations to keep strengthening their tentacles in the Country. Since, many who are seeking medical attention to their health continuously find difficulties in assessing established health centres to get medical treatments, the option to resort to unlicensed operators have become a phenomenon growing with geometric expansion. The preponderance of roadside pharmaceutical operators, drug hawkers, and illegal health centres, have grown to a disturbing height as more citizens continue to resort to these entities to seek medical attention. The threat which this poses to the populace is a subject of concern, given the risk more citizens are being exposed to, by patronising these unlicensed operators who are known for prescription of drugs which may largely fall short of the standard of medical practices.

It was disclosed on Tuesday, that the Lagos State Taskforce on Counterfeit, Fake Drugs and Unwholesome Processed Foods had shut no less than 16 illegal, substandard and unregistered pharmacies, patent medicine stores and premises. An enforcement exercise which was carried out in collaboration with the National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Pharmacists’ Council of Nigeria (PCN), Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Federal Taskforce on fake drugs and the Police Officers from Environmental and Special Offences Unit (Task Force) of Lagos Police Command, led to the shutting of these facilities in the  Ajegunle and Alaba Suru axis of Ajeromi Ifelodun Local Government Area of the State. The State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, speaking on the subject on Tuesday, while reviewing the report of the monitoring, inspection and enforcement exercise carried out by the Task Force through the Pharmaceutical Inspectorate Unit (PIU) of the Pharmaceutical Services Directorate of the Ministry of Health, stated that the sealing of the affected facilities was in accordance with the provisions of Section C34 of the Counterfeit, Fake Drugs and Unwholesome Processed Foods Miscellaneous Provision Act of 1999. The Commissioner explained that the affected pharmacies and patent medicine shops were sealed for offences bordering on operations without a license; engaging unqualified persons to man and dispense drugs to unsuspecting citizens; operating beyond scope through the sale of ethical products and displaying and storing drugs in un-conducive environments which compromises the potency of the drugs, rendering them ineffective. The commissioner who stressed that only licensed patent medicine vendors are authorized to sell drug products in their original and approved pack size as produced by the manufacturing companies, noted that the law prohibits wholesaling of drugs by patent medicine vendors and prohibits wholesalers from retailing drugs. According to him, the recent operation of the taskforce was coming on the heels of the war being waged against fake drugs and illegal drug shop. He further warned that the activities of the State Task Force on Fake Drugs would not only be sustained but intensified until operators in the sector adhere strictly to the provisions of the law on the running of pharmacies and patent medicine shops, in order to safeguard the health of the citizenry. He also stressed that the state government remained committed to putting a halt to the ugly trend of having unqualified personnel deal with drug and would continue to insist that the environment for the dispensation of medical care should be suitable for the promotion and maintenance of good health.

It is imperative for the Government to galvanise resources towards attending to the deficits in the Nigerian health sector. The infrastructure and man power deficits in the Country’s health sector is a subject the Government must take seriously to relegate the preponderance of the operations of unlicensed operators across the Country. It is indisputable that the populace will continue to resort to self-help and/or seek for alternative help from unlicensed operators, in as much as accessibility to government owned health facilities remains difficult. It is glaring that the affordability of licensed private health facilities in the Country is largely a closed option to majority of the populace at the local level. If therefore, the public health centres are not virile enough to meet the demands of the public, the resort to unlicensed health ventures may not be a closed option.

To check against the proliferation of illegal operations in the Country’s health sector, it is instructive that the Government at all levels in the Federation, galvanise more resources towards expanding the profile of health infrastructures in the Country to sufficiently cater for the pressing demands of the population. It is incontestable that where the population is largely unhealthy, the possibilities of socio-economic growth and political coordination may be an illusion. It is, hence, paramount that the Government devises working strategies with the corresponding resources to address the deficits in the Nigerian health sector.