Health
PSN, ACPN push for pharmacists’ stronger role in primary healthcare
Janet Ogundepo
Pharmacists in Nigeria have called for a stronger role in primary healthcare, urging the Federal Government to approve the Pharmacy First Initiative and allow community pharmacies to provide basic screening services, manage uncomplicated diseases, and improve access to essential drugs.
The Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria and the Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria made the call in separate statements sent to PUNCH Healthwise to mark World Pharmacists Day, urging pharmacists to embrace technology, strengthen patient care, and intensify the fight against medicine misuse and inappropriate antibiotic use.
The pharmacists said community pharmacies, as accessible points of care, could help reduce the burden on secondary and tertiary health facilities by providing essential medicines, managing uncomplicated diseases and offering services including blood pressure and blood sugar screening, vaccination awareness, health education, smoking cessation support and maternal and child health education.
They further advocated the approval of specific investment plans to leverage the Pharmacy First Initiative, describing it as one of the best mechanisms to catalyse Universal Health Coverage in the country.
World Pharmacy Day is celebrated globally every year on September 25 to honour the vital role pharmacists play in improving global health.
The theme for this year is “Empowering pharmacists for healthier futures.”
Embrace technology to fight medicine misuse
The President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, Pharm. Ayuba Ibrahim Tanko, has urged pharmacists to embrace technology, continue learning and strengthen efforts to promote safe and effective medicine use.
Tanko made the call in his World Pharmacists Day statement, themed “Empowering Pharmacists for a Healthier Future,” where he highlighted the expanding role of pharmacists in Nigeria’s healthcare system.
He stated that pharmacists go beyond dispensing medicines, serving as healthcare professionals, educators, counsellors, advocates and partners in patient care.
He said pharmacists help patients understand their medicines, ensure their safe and effective use, identify possible drug-drug, food-drug and drug-disease interactions, promote treatment adherence and provide advice on disease prevention and healthy living.
Tanko noted that pharmacists were among the most accessible healthcare professionals in communities, giving them an opportunity to contribute significantly to public health by providing professional guidance to people seeking help for common health concerns.
He urged pharmacists to keep pace with developments in technology, artificial intelligence, digital health, new medicines and personalised treatment, while maintaining evidence-based practice and putting patients at the centre of care.
The PSN president also called on pharmacists to intensify the fight against medicine misuse, self-medication, antimicrobial resistance, counterfeit medicines and inappropriate use of antibiotics.
He said pharmacists had a responsibility to educate patients on the correct dosage and timing of medicines, possible side effects, precautions and adverse drug reactions.
“A healthier future requires pharmacists who are not only knowledgeable about medicines but are also compassionate, ethical, innovative, and committed to lifelong learning.
“One of our greatest responsibilities is to protect the patient. A medicine can save a life when it is used correctly, but the same medicine can cause harm when it is used incorrectly,” the PSN president said.
Tanko further encouraged pharmacists to contribute to public health through vaccination awareness, blood pressure and blood sugar screening, health education, smoking cessation support and maternal and child health education.
He said pharmacists should also activate pharmacy-based clinics to provide such services and institutionalise data gathering, in line with a recent resolution of the Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria.
The PSN president stressed the importance of collaboration among healthcare professionals, saying teamwork would ensure that patients remained the major beneficiaries of healthcare services.
Tanko also announced that the PSN would celebrate its centenary in the first quarter of 2027, with activities including a centenary declaration, endowment fund launch, public lectures, publication, banquet and awards night.
He urged pharmacists and future pharmacists to uphold the dignity and integrity of the profession, put patients first, embrace innovation and technology, continue learning, speak against unsafe medication practices and mentor younger pharmacists.
He said pharmacists had an important role in building a healthier future through careful prescription review, patient counselling, safe medicine dispensing and health education.
Approve Pharmacy First Initiative
The Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria has called on the Federal Government to approve a Pharmacy First Initiative that would transform community pharmacies across the country into primary healthcare hubs, arguing that the plan represents one of the most cost-effective paths to achieving Universal Health Coverage in Nigeria.
In a press statement signed by its National Chairman, Ambrose Ezeh, and National Secretary, Obiageri Ikwu, the ACPN said community pharmacies were uniquely positioned to ease the burden on secondary and tertiary health facilities by providing essential drugs, managing uncomplicated diseases and offering basic screening services at the community level.
The association said the initiative should enable community pharmacists to provide free basic screening for non-communicable conditions such as hypertension and diabetes, and to establish pharmacy-based clinics offering counselling and advocacy in areas including malaria, antenatal care, family planning, smoking cessation and the use of nutraceuticals.
“Community Pharmacists must continue to be a trusted and low-cost first contact workforce in the quest for the true growth and development of the Health Sector in Nigeria,” the statement read.
UK’s £340m model held up as benchmark
The community pharmacists referred to the United Kingdom’s expanding pharmacy investment programme as the model Nigeria should follow, noting that the National Health Service had substantially expanded its walk-in pharmacy treatments in England under a £340 million investment deal announced in May 2026.
The association said the UK arrangement built directly upon the Pharmacy First Initiative, which it described as transforming community pharmacies into primary clinical care hubs to reduce the burden on general practice surgeries.
The ACPN chairman noted that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK government had provided £300 million to support community pharmacies when physicians’ clinics were closed, and that British pharmacists had sustained health services so effectively during that period that the government issued a special commendation to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain.
Ezeh said Nigeria’s experience during the same period stood in stark contrast.
“In Nigeria, despite the reality that community pharmacies ignored major risk factors to provide accessible and affordable services during COVID-19, there was neither financial support nor acknowledgement of Community Pharmacists for sustaining services at accessible and affordable costs. The few hospitals that offered services in that dispensation charged tens of millions of naira deposits before offering services,” the statement said.
The ACPN said policy and political leadership gaps, an evidence and digital transformation gap, quality and improvement gaps, and collaboration gaps were hindering patient-centred care in Nigeria’s health system.
It said any realistic approach to future growth must be anchored on five pillars: a unified vision, quality that inspires trust, digital-first and data-driven operations, primary care partnerships, and active collaboration with health insurers.
The association called on community pharmacists to invest in proper documentation and data generation from their services to build the evidence base needed to advocate for the profession’s expanded role.
“Pharmacies must embark on proper documentation and generate data based on these services to actualise evidence-based advocacy in Pharmacy Practice,” Ezeh said.
The ACPN chairman further renewed its call on the Federal Government to establish a Presidential Committee on the Pharma-Sector to explore the Pharmacy First Initiative and other outstanding issues it said had been raised in the public interest.
He urged both federal and state governments to take note of pharmacy reforms being implemented around the world and to structure appropriate investment plans to support community pharmacies in delivering primary healthcare services.
“At the centre of strategising for Universal Health Coverage, governments at all levels must structure community pharmacies to provide Primary Health Care services through better access to essential drugs and management of uncomplicated diseases, which ultimately reduces the burden of services on secondary and tertiary health facilities,” Ezeh said.
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