Pharmacists under the aegis of the Association of Community Pharmacist of Nigeria (ACPN) have called on the Senate to save the country’s healthcare sector from an imminent regulatory crisis by halting further deliberations on the proposed National Health Facilities Regulatory Agency Bill.
In a petition addressed to the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, and signed by the ACPN Chairman, Ambrose Eze, the association described the Bill as unnecessary and a duplication of existing regulatory framework.
In the document titled, ‘Stop the National Health Facility Regulatory Agency (NHFRA) Bill in National Interest’, ACPN argued that Nigeria has sufficient statutory institutions to regulate healthcare practice. It further posited that professional regulatory councils established by Acts of the National Assembly already discharge the functions as proposed in the NHFRA.
According to ACPN, the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria, Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria, Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control regulate their respective areas of specialisation, insisting that these institutions have operated within clearly defined legal framework and mandates for several decades.
The proposed NHFRA, it argued, would create overlapping functions with their statutory responsibilities instead of strengthening the healthcare regulatory framework, creating crisis of confidence in the system.
Reflecting on historical antecedents, ACPN stated that “the status quo before 2014 when we had a National Health Act, was that all the major professions had Professional Regulatory Agencies/Councils, which regulated and controlled their professions. Drug matters are listed on the Exclusive List as item 21 in Part 1 of the 2nd schedule in the 1999 Constitution.
“This latitude compelled only the National Assembly to make Pharmacy and Drug laws, while the Federal Ministry of Health through agencies like the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria (PCN) and NAFDAC enforced laws by the National Assembly. Only the Federal High Courts are by virtue of its being listed on the Exclusive List can adjudicate on Drug Matters and Pharmacy Practices in Nigeria.”
ACPN stressed that enforcement of such laws as contained in the constitution rests with federal agencies, including the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria and NAFDAC, and that only the Federal High Court has the jurisdiction to adjudicate on pharmacy practice and drug-related matters.
The association expressed concerns that over a decade, a suspicious clause in the NHFRA draft bill which gives the control of the statutory bodies in the hands of one profession had made it difficult to pass
‘’For over ten years, it was impossible to have a National Health Act because the first provision in the draft bill in section 1 (I) had posited that there shall be a “National Health System which shall Regulate and Control all the health professions.”
