Salvaging the Pharmacy Board: Strategic Investment in Humans
By Mohamed M. Sesay (Lucky)
“Health is Wealth”, is an uncontested aphorism that upholds the primacy of being healthy to aspire for other things in life. In practical terms it can be posited that all Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) can never function properly if those running the institutions are indisposed.
This is where I must laud the effort of the government priority cluster on Human Capital Development aligned to making reforms in health care delivery. One crucial entity in the health sector is the Pharmacy board. Its statutory mandate is very essential to be taken for granted.
Let us reflect on key portions of the Pharmacy and Drugs Act 2001provides inter alia: PBSL is charged with the constitutional responsibilities of regulating medicines (Drugs), medical devices, cosmetics, chemicals, reagents, other related medical products and the practice of pharmacy across the country.
In the context of Sierra Leone where most citizens rely on patent drugs sold over the counter to respond to ailments and sicknesses rather going to hospitals, the oversight role of the Pharmacy Board cannot be relegated. We have been witness to the negative effects of drug peddling and even the proliferation of narcotics that has assumed an alarming trend to render psychopathic effects on the youthful population.
The logistical constraints that are currently limiting the work of the Pharmacy Boards must be resolved as a matter of urgency. How can the Pharmacy Board be running without functional vehicles to facilitate movement of its staffers? This issue must be treated with the urgency in the light of the problem it is bound to create if left unattended.
This means the parent ministry of Health must probe the situation prevailing at the Pharmacy Board to understand what the root cause of the problem could. Is the problem budgetary inadequacy or managerial underperformance to respond to the repair demands of assets? Whatever the case might be, somebody has to take onus of the problem.
I am of the view that every reasonable person will agree with me that each one of the above mentioned functions or mandates would be extremely difficult to discharge if the agency is not equipped with the required operational vehicles.
For instance, PBSL monitors all public and private pharmaceutical premises across the country on a weekly and quarterly basis as the case may be in order to ascertain that the outlets are conducive for medicines storage and that the medicines are also efficacious- of good quality and safe for human consumption.
Equally so, the agency has a quarterly Tax Force meeting that it holds with stakeholders in all the regions to get full update on their day to day regulatory activities. All of these activities involve the movement of staff from one place to another, and this cannot be done without mobility supports i.e. road worthy vehicles
This somewhat perennial lip-service paid to PBSL has the propensity to snail pace the laudable operation of the agency in their periodic raid of narcotic drug peddlers and even the ‘pepeh doctors’ illicitly hawking weather beating and fake drugs to create health complications for patients.
It’s painfully frustrating to know that PBSL had on several years and occasions formally and informally engaged the Ministry of Health and Sanitation for vehicles but on each occasion, the Ministry has been very good at making insincere commitments to resolve the issue. Nothing can justify this neglect!
I know its critics might say, “PBSL is a government subvented agency and that it should capture vehicle procurement in its yearly budget”. Well the answer to that is, PBSL has always done just that but the annoying aspect is that its total Budget is always cut down drastically, and even the approved allocated figure has never come on time. This is to say the manner in which the government’s yearly subvention is delivered to PBSL makes it impossible for the agency to purchase official vehicles
However, it is to the credit of the Global Fund for donating a Toyota Land cruiser in 2017. It is the only official vehicle that the agency can boast of, even though it has spent more time in the garage than on operations. Pharmacy Board also owes its deepest thanks to other well-wishers including the World Health Organization for donating some vehicles over the years, although they are no longer in use.
It is even disgusting to note that PBSL has degenerated to the level of renting vehicles for its operations. For instance, PBSL had to spend a huge sum of money on vehicle rental to roll out the current one month Communications campaign on substandard and fake medicines across the country. This was an operation supported by W.H.O and the UK Government.
The government must assume responsibility for core areas of government linked to investing in people rather than allowing the donors to always call the shot. The issue about getting the Pharmacy Board roadworthy vehicle is feasible and the political will is also not in doubt. So we are counting on this government to come to the rescue of the board in enhancing its sensitive national mandate that assures a wealthy and wealthy nation.
