The Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Osun chapter, has advocated for better access to safe healthcare services through policy support and resources to serve the people effectively.

The Osun PSN chairman, Omoniyi Ayoodele, said this on the sideline of the society’s 2025 Biennial Luncheon held on Thursday in Osogbo.

The theme of the 2025 Biennial Luncheon is “Think Health, Think Pharmacists for Accessible and Safer Healthcare”.

Mr Ayoodele said that the roles of pharmacists in communities cannot be overemphasised, looking at the enormous roles played by pharmacists.

He said that leveraging pharmacists’ expertise and accessibility in the healthcare system would improve patients’ healthcare outcomes, reduce costs and enhance quality of care.

”Pharmacists will continue to render convenient services, manage medications, and also provide health screening services to residents of the state.

”Drug interaction monitoring, patient education, clinical services and collaboration with the healthcare team cannot be overemphasised,” Mr Ayoodele said.

According to him, the need to think health and think pharmacists cannot be more apt at a time when the roles of PSN are becoming wider and gaining more recognition among the populace.

Earlier, Bashir Akande, chairman of the luncheon, said pharmacists were champions of safety in healthcare and experts when it comes to understanding drug interactions, dosages, and contraindications.

Mr Akande said that pharmacists carefully review prescriptions, check for potential issues that could harm patients and ensure that treatments are both safe and effective.

He said that the need to reflect on the invaluable roles of pharmacists had become imperative.

According to him, pharmacists are educators, advocates and guardians of public health, making our healthcare system more accessible, efficient and safer for all.

”One of the greatest challenges we face in healthcare today is accessibility, and many people, especially in rural communities, struggle to access high-quality medical care.

”Also, pharmacists have been at the forefront of bridging gaps where necessary by helping people to avoid unnecessary trips to busy hospitals,” Mr Akande said.

He said that pharmacists increase accessibility and help prevent overburdened systems from becoming even more overwhelmed.

The guest speaker of the luncheon, Lolu Ojo, managing director of Merit Healthcare Limited, said that pharmacists must be integrated into primary healthcare and national insurance schemes to impact the public.

He spoke on some challenges confronting pharmacists in Nigeria while identifying poor public awareness of pharmacists’ roles, weak pharmacists’ glance culture and fragmentation of the drug distribution system.

Mr Ojo urged the government’s support for local manufacturers by strengthening their roles in society and assigning that pharmacists must promote specialisation and increased public advocacy.

“Let us collaborate rather than compete and make patients the centre of attraction in what we do,” he said.

According to him, the public must trust their pharmacists and consult them for medications in terms of needing accessible healthcare.

In their separate goodwill messages, Oba Adedokun Abolarin, the Orangun of Oke-Ila, and Isiaka Adekunle, permanent secretary, Ministry of Health, urged pharmacists to use their profession to build better healthcare delivery services in Nigeria.

The award of excellence was presented by Samuel Adewale, managing director of SamAce Pharmaceutical Company, to Oba Adedokun Abolarin and other dignitaries for their support of PSN.

(NAN)