By: Sandra Ani
Troop Pharmacy, a group of healthcare professionals with community practice in focus have extended their professional services to a suburb part of Ikeja in Lagos state.
The siting of the pharmacy in the heart of the state, they said was borne out of the need to extend quality healthcare ,access to affordable medication and professional services to every residential in all nooks and crannies of the country.
The Pharmacy offered seminars on various health matters and offered free eyes and blood tests to residents in the neighbourhood during the official opening of the pharmacy on Friday.
“Consulting a pharmacist and professional healthcare providers should be the order of practice services,” said Pharmacist Anderline Dukor, during the public enlightenment forum. “Consuming herbal medicines that have not been certified by the regulatory agencies is risky.” she warned.
“There are herbals that are effective but those herbals must be prepared properly. Even in the Pharmacy we have some herbals that have been capsulated already. The pharmacists have calculated the quantity people can take.
“If we must take herbals, I would want us to go for those that have been validated by regulatory agencies and have been tried on experimental animals. it is better that we are taking the right medicines than taking medicines that will land us where we don’t want to be,” Dukor advised.
Also, an Optometrist, Dr Chidinma Ugwu of Viewpoint Specialist Eye Hospital said it was important people go for regular eye test to detect if they have contracted glaucoma and other eyes diseases.
“Regular eye test will ensure early detection of glaucoma and other eyes diseases which will in turn smooth the treatment process. Glaucoma is no respecter of age, it can be contracted by both young and old people,” Ugwu said.
She added that regular exercise and eating balanced diets could help check glaucoma.
Earlier, Pharmacist Chizomam Emeje, managing director of Troop Pharmaceuticals Ltd advised the industry regulators to provide enabling environment that will make Nigerians to have access to quality and affordable medications seamlessly.
She said government intervention in the area of providing access to quality and affordable medications, will go along way to support efforts from professional health practitioners.
“The problem is that many of our drugs are imported. Labour cost is killing efforts to locally manufactured medications. For most medications, we have to go out there mostly to India to import. Besides, there is lack of infrastructure and the problem of multiple taxation. It is like we are saying the same thing every time but what are we doing about it?,” she queried.
“So I believe it has to do with governance, policies and implementation of government policies. We have good policies, but the implementation remains the problem. This makes it affect a lot of things and the health sector suffers; the poor man suffers and finds it difficult to access professional services,” she said.
Speaking more on the rationale for extending Troop pharmacy to Ikeja axis, she said, “We have been into community practice for about 22 years and we believe that we should extend the good and professional services OKOTA residents have enjoyed to Ikeja. We have given it all its professional and ambient atmosphere because anything worth doing is worth doing well and we have emphasis on excellence.
“I believe people should take advantage of having a pharmacist in their vicinity and patronise them instead of running to over the counter chemists.”
“The level of public education to decipher between a doctor, pharmacist and chemist is so low, and we really need awareness in this area; we are here to bring professional services and counseling to this neighborhood and not just to sell drugs.”
According to Prof. Simon Emeje, Chairman , Courier and Logistics Management Institute (CLMI), the pharmacists should be seen as assets to the neighborhood.
“Extension of healthcare professional service should be seen as an asset to a given neighborhood. The pharmacy has a group of professionals. They are not traders but they are professionals as far as health issue is concern. The interest is about caring for the health of the people and that is the service that has been brought to this place,” he said.p