Friday, July
21, 2017
'Nigeria
launches guidelines on essential drugs for treatment
The Federal
Government on Thursday 20 July 2017 in Abuja launched two documents which would
serve as guidelines for crafting an essential medicine list for medical
practitioners in the treatment of patients.
A press
statement released by the ministry of health stated that the two documents, 2nd
Edition of Nigerian Standard Treatment Guidelines and 6thEdition of Nigerian
Essential Medicines List for the betterment of patients, were launched by the
Minister of State for Health, Osagie Ehanire.
The
minister, who was represented by the Director, Food and Drug Services
Department, Grace Chukwumah, said the documents are veritable tools to be used
for procurement of medicines and their use in the public sector.
They would
also be used in prescribing drugs in the public health sector and providing
medical information to healthcare providers as well as reimbursement of
medicines in the National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS among others.
The Minister
implored health providers across the country to take full advantage of these
policy documents for the betterment of patients’ health.
“The sure
way to quality health services lies in our willingness to strictly adhere to
the many policy documents being churned out by the Federal Ministry of
Health,’’ the minister said.
Mr. Ehanire
also reinstated the ministry’s commitment to improving the health of Nigerians
and promised to regularly update policies to conform to global standards.
He added
that the ministry would monitor and evaluate the impact of the policies on the
health system across the country.
He called on
state ministries of health to seize this opportunity to revise and adopt their
policy documents in line with national policies and the World Health
Organization (WHO).
“The
Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, PSN, Nigerian Medical Association, NMA,
Chief Medical Directors of Tertiary Health Institutions, Directors of Pharmaceutical
Services of States and all other relevant stakeholders must not to rest on
their oars to ensure the successful implementation of these documents,” he
added.
Earlier in
his opening remarks, John Obodo, Chairman of the Nigerian Standard Treatment
Guidelines and the Essential Medicines List Review Committee in his opening
remarks, noted that the list was meant to assist practitioners in providing
better health care services and also to provide safe, efficacious and
affordable medicines to satisfy the health care needs of Nigerians.’’
Africa Center for Clin Gov Research &
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Joseph Ana has a cumulative continuous practice experience of over 40-years in
Nigeria, United Kingdom and Ghana as a Primary Health Care Physician, Public
Health Expert, General and Urological Surgeon, Health Policy Expert and
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