Community Pharmacists task self on mordern businesses

By Bushrah Yusuf-Badmus

Summit
Ilorin, March 11, 2020 (NAN) The Kwara Branch of the Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN) on Wednesday held a Business Summit in Ilorin for its members to increase their clinical skills and business acumen.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the summit was sponsored majorly by Jouf Pharmaceuticals Ltd, the major distributor of Topicrem in Nigeria.

The summit has its theme as “Optimising resources in community pharmacy practice in the face of disruptive innovations”.

The ACPN National Chairman, Mr Samuel Adekola, who was represented by Oyo ACPN Chairman, Mr Abiodun Ajibade, said the theme of the summit was not only apt and timely, but a statement of readiness by community pharmacists to cause a change and improvement in their collective outcomes in practice.

“This business summit is one activity I cherish drawing from the various challenges that has bedevilled our practice as community pharmacists for a long time now.

“Our practice environment has been very hostile, the basic infrastructure to support professional services has been inadequate.

“We are faced with regulatory deficits that has made community pharmacists practice a big task and unrewarding to our members across the country.

“As community pharmacists, we must begin to reposition ourselves and practices to meet our goals, so that we can sing a new song in a short time to come,” Adekola said.

Mr Adejuwon Otelaja, the Chairman, Kwara ACPN, said the summit became imperative as community pharmacists now focus more on professional pharmaceutical care and leaving out business angle of the job.

“Most pharmacists focus only on providing the professional pharmaceutical care for their businesses forgetting that it is still a business even though it is meant to be a service.

“They forget the business aspect and a lot of us have not upgraded our skills apart from what was thought in school.

“And the business environment is changing with a lot of disruptive innovations, technology and newer ways of doing business is coming up,” the Kwara ACPN chairman said.

A consultant dermatologist at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), Dr Omotoyosi Ilesanmi, warned against the patronage of unregistered cosmetologists to avoid renal failure, cancer or brain damage.

“People should consult registered dermatologists instead of the so called cosmetologists who combine different chemicals.

“At the end of the day, this results in bleached skin, wrinkles, or disposition to develop cancer, renal failure or brain damage.

“Dermatologists are always proactive when treating skin conditions because the skin is delicate,” Ilesanmi said.

On his part, Mr Dipo Marcjob, who delivered a lecture on “Non-verbal Intelligence: Mitigating against deception in community pharmacy practise”, said it was necessary to have non-verbal intelligent skills to easily pick up deception.

“There is the need for everyone to be on top of his game, because a lot of things we miss out, is because we are not aware enough.

“Pharmacy practice is lucrative and it can also crash if you don’t pay attention, this is because the human brain is not wired to pick out every kind of deception that comes.

“So, the only mitigation now is to empower the brain with non-verbal intelligent skill such that it can pick up deception easily,” Macjob said.

Similarly, Pharm. Shina Opanubi, who spoke on “Retail pharmacy business”, said running a business with pharmaceutical knowledge won’t work out for the business.

“This topic is to address how pharmacists can improve their businesses, skills and practice.

“Essentially, it is for them to wake up to the realities of business today and take advantages of business opportunities in Nigeria,” Opanubi said. (NAN)
BAY/KOLE/MST
Edited by Remi Koleoso/Muhammad Suleiman Tola