– As Pharmaceutical Inspectors Hold National Workshop
The Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) has once again reiterated its call to pharmacists to embrace excellence and global best practice in the practice of the profession, especially in the inspectorate and drug distribution units.
The Chairman, Governing Council of the body, Professor Ahmed Mora, made this call in Dover Hotel, Lagos at the commencement of a three-day national workshop organised for pharmaceutical inspectors. He expressed his profound belief in the ability of the PCN to up the ante of pharmaceutical practice through adequate capacity building programmes such as the ongoing workshop tagged “Pharmaceutical Inspection – Need for Excellence in Pharmaceutical Service Delivery” and organised in partnership with the United States Pharmacopeia Promoting Quality Medicine plus (USP/PQM+) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
“The hosting of this workshop is timely as new inspectors are continuously accredited and appointed and new regulations are emerging. The old inspectors also need to update their knowledge and acquaint themselves with current trends in inspectorate activities for effective service delivery. It is therefore important for the PCN to continuously provide this kind of workshop to improve the personal skills and knowledge of inspectors and keep them abreast of current/new regulations”, he said.
Established by Decree 91 of 1992 (now CAP P17, Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2004), the PCN is charged with the responsibility of regulating the training and practice of Pharmacy in all its aspects and ramifications. Registrar of the Council, Dr Elijah Mohammed, in his welcome address, explained the rationale behind the PCN’s decision to set up the Pharmaceutical Inspectorate Committee (PIC) in various states of the Federation and the FCT.
“PCN set up the Pharmaceutical Inspectorate Committee (PIC) in all states of the federation and the FCT to assist her in achieving the mandate of pharmacy regulation/practice in pharmaceutical premises across the country. The composition of the PIC includes pharmacists who have the training and experience and are of high reputation and in good standing with PCN. These pharmacists work tirelessly to ensure minimum standard practice is maintained”, he said.
According to him, inspection of pharmaceutical premises by pharmaceutical inspectors provides opportunity for continuous improvement on set standards in the pharmaceutical landscape hence, the need for training and retraining of inspectors on current trends in line with global best practice.
“PCN over the years has continued to build the capacity of inspectors through National Inspectors’ Workshop during which inspectors are refreshed and brought abreast with new developments in the pharmaceutical regulatory landscape. It also provides avenues for the cross fertilization of ideas among Inspectors and promote uniformity of pharmaceutical regulation across the country”, he said.
Notable among speakers at the event were Dr Amina Shekarau and Pharm. Maria Ochigbo who took participants on annotated excursions into the impact of pharmaceutical inspection on the general outcome of medicine quality and the dynamics of the pharmaceutical distribution value chain and its effects on the society, respectively.
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