Lagos Pharmacists wants LASU Faculty of Pharmacy to issue PharmD
By Chioma Obinna
The Lagos state branch of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, PSN, weekend made a call for the newly approved faculty of Pharmacy in Lagos State University to be made faculty for the issue of degree in PharmD.
The Society also clamoured for the faculty to become the minimal registrable degree by the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria.
The Chairman of the Society, Pharm. Gbolagade Iyiola said: “We find it necessary to commend the Lagos State Government for finally giving a nod to the establishment of a Faculty of Pharmacy at the Lagos State University.
“The training school deserves to become the benchmark in national discourses as we strongly clamour that its focus must be degrees in PharmD which will become the minimal registrable degree by the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria in a few years. “
Iyiola added, “It is important to impress it on the Lagos State Government to appoint credible and very experienced Scholars in Pharmacy practice to give good quality leadership in the new schools. This ordinarily should not pose a challenge in Lagos and the southwest geo-political zone where we have an array of seasoned Academic Pharmacists who are world Class teachers and Consultants to the World Health Organization (WHO), UNIDO and other world bodies.
“Our clarion call to the Lagos State Government will be incomplete if we do not also inform you that the Faculty of Pharmacy at Lagos State University must enjoy a fully autonomous status. A quick check around the nation will confirm that all our recognized 20 Faculties are autonomous and not aligned or subsumed in marriages of inconveniences with any other structure of a calling in the Health profession. In more contemporary times, our new schools of Pharmacy enjoy collegiate statutes, while the heads are designated, Provosts.”
He encouraged the Governor of the state, Babajide Sanwo-Olu to normalise the complications around the new Pharmacy School so it can enjoy take-off.
Iyiola who spoke during the society Scientific Week in Lagos, also commended President Buhari and the National Assembly for actualising the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria Bill after 8 years it was started.
Iyiola said the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria Act 2022 was the needed tool to enhance monitoring and control of pharmaceutical premises, expand services through satellite pharmacies, entrench pharmacy-based human resources in healthcare, revolutionalise industrial pharmacy and restore dignity to community pharmacy.