‘We’re Not Taking Their Jobs’ – Patent Medicine Dealers Challenge Pharmacists
Patent medicine dealers in Nigeria, Monday, said they should be commended for taking primary health services to the grass roots instead of being regarded as quacks, especially by members of the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria., PCN.
Prince Joel Odo, the national president of the National Association of Patent and Proprietary Medicine (NAPPMED), stated this in an exclusive interview with THE WHISTLER.
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He said, “We relate well with PCN, but they see us as quacks. We don’t challenge them in anyway. But one practical problem in Nigeria is to underrate anybody. I have seen where a car belonging to a professor of mechanical engineering packed up, and he resorted to roadside mechanics. What matters are those in the field.
“Pharmacists don’t dress wounds. I do that more than they do. We as patent medicine dealers practice referrals. I don’t treat what I can’t handle. Without patent medicine dealers, nobody can identify sicknesses in local areas. The pharmacists are not there, but they don’t believe that we are doing anything because they see us as people taking their jobs.”
On moves by the PCN to be in charge of licensing patent medicine dealers in Nigeria, Prince Odo said, “We believe in obtaining licences, but such should come through a normal channel. PCN is not the body giving us licences before. It was directly from the ministry of health. Former Health Minister ABC Nwosu delegated them to assist the ministry. But they want to hijack the procedure.
“I believe in licences because if you buy a vehicle for commercial purposes today, aside having vehicle particulars, one would also belong to a union before picking passengers along the road.
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“The pharmacists should allow us to operate. They know our problems. They should commend us for the good jobs we are doing in this country. In my village of about 15, 000 persons, there are no pharmacy shops. Also we don’t have a standard hospital. It is the patent medicine dealers that serve them. The government needs to encourage patent medicine dealers for their good jobs. The government should stop colluding with pharmacists in troubling patent medicine dealers.”
He commended the Society for Family Health and the World Health Organisation for partnering with NAPPMED in ensuring quality health care at the grass-roots. He said the two health giants ‘believe that we are the people that have the structures, and that we are everywhere’.
