•Our members dying —Pensioners
•Diabetics demand subsidy on imported
drugs
With the nation’s worsening foreign exchange crisis, prices
of life-saving drugs have skyrocketed in recent days, investigations have
revealed.
Indeed, essential multinational drugs have mostly vanished
from the stores.
The Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), in a communiqué
released by its National President, Ahmed I. Yakasai and the National
Secretary, Gbolagade Iyiola, after its recent National Council meeting in Kano,
warned of the dangers of scarcity of life-saving drugs in the country as a
result of the forex crisis.
It was discovered that hypertensive and diabetic patients
are most hit by the development in the
health sector with reports of daily casualties.
The National President of Diabetes Association of Nigeria,
Dr Mohammed Alkali, on Friday confirmed
the situation and called for subsidy for imported diabetes drugs.
Alkali, who spoke to Saturday Tribune over the phone, said
that the hike in the price of diabetes drugs due to the dollar-naira exchange
rate has become “unbearable” for patients, who depend on the drugs for
sustenance.
Affirming that most of the drugs used by diabetic patients
are sourced from other countries, he urged the Federal Government to consider
introducing palliative measures in order to ameliorate the effects on patients,
including the local production of pharmaceutical drugs.
He said, “Most of the diabetes drugs are imported. The
current foreign exchange situation in the country has affected almost all the
drugs. This is one of the reasons we are pushing that local production should
be considered because as long as the drugs are going to be imported, the price
of these drugs will continue to go up and the effects on diabetic patients will
be unbearable.
“The association will continue to advocate lower profit on
imported drugs so that patients can buy them. But there is a limit to which
these prices can go down especially due to the forex situation. Our constraint
now is sustaining the minimum price of the drugs.
“There is no official subsidy on diabetes drugs. We are
advocating that the government to consider subsidizing diabetes drugs and
encourage local production of drugs”.
The association had also, a few days ago, disclosed that a
disturbing 1.56 million new cases of diabetes were discovered in 2015 while
about five million people live with the disease. Diabetics use daily doses of
special drugs which are imported.
According to a pharmacist, Mr. Adewole Atanda, the reason
behind the high cost of the drugs and
injections taken by the sufferers of these diseases to lessen their hazards, is
that most of the drugs like the diabinese tablets among others, are not
produced here in Nigeria because the materials needed to manufacture them are not locally available.
The drugs, according to him, are only imported into Nigeria from other
countries, hence, making them very expensive and scarce to come by.
A doctor, who did not want his name in print said that
people were dying like chickens in the hospitals as the prices of drugs have
doubled in the last few months.
Checks with medical practitioners indicate that prices of
essential drugs are not only getting out of hand, most of the drugs are not
available on the shelves.
It was gathered that most multinational drug companies are
finding it difficult to import drugs into the country as a result of the forex
policy of the administration, while the persistent drop in the value of the
Naira is also constituting another crisis.
There are twin issues, said a doctor, who did not want to be
mentioned. He stated that his discussions with major drug companies in the last
one week had confirmed that the companies were finding it difficult to import
essential drugs.
He said that the companies have been bombarded with various
orders for the drugs but it has been difficult to import drugs for treatment of
hypertension, heart diseases and acute gastro-intestinal issues.
Checks in the markets indicated that such drugs have had
their prices doubled in the last three weeks.
A doctor told Saturday Tribune: “The situation is taking a
huge toll on the health situation in the country. The prices of most referral
drugs that are effective have skyrocketed in the last few months. The increase
in the price of petrol is not matched by increase in salary and that is taking huge
toll on those of us in the health sector.
“Many of the patients will come into the clinic and only
secure hospital cards and after the necessary tests, they would say they have
no other money for drugs and that the
only money they had had been used to secure hospital card.”
In Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, Mr. Oyekunle Wahab, a
retired teacher who suffers from diabetes, said that ever since the doctor diagnosed him with diabetes, 50 percent of
his monthly pension is always spent on his medications
“Out of the N30,000 I receive monthly as my pension, I spend
over N15,000 on buying strips for my blood sugar test and the insulin injection
to regulate the level of sugar in my blood. But of late, government has been
paying our pension once in three months and this has stopped me from checking
the level of sugar in my blood because my strips have been exhausted and to buy
another one now, I will need N3,000. Just last week, I was feeling dizzy and I
knew it was because of the Insulin injection I stopped taking, so, I hurried
off to the hospital and complained to my doctor who later injected me for
free,” he said.
Similarly, Salami Abimbola, an Ibadan boy in his early 20’s
who suffers from migraine, expressed his parents’ frustration on his drug (sudrex tablet) worth N100 per card and
which gets exhausted two days.
“My parents say they are tired of buying the drug every day,
therefore, I go through pains whenever my dad doesn’t have enough money to buy
it,” he said.
Speaking on the risks of not using these drugs as
prescribed, a medical expert, Dr. Oyewale Durojaiye says that if a patient who
suffers from one of these diseases, e.g. hypertension, fails to take the proper
dosage of his drugs, it may result in hypertensive retinopathy which damages
the retinal and in most cases, it can lead to cerebrovascular disease, mostly known as stroke.
The PSN, in its communique, said it, “after a careful
evaluation of the impact of the current paucity of Forex in the country which
is gradually grinding operations in drug manufacturing and importation outlets
to a halt in the days ahead, appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently
intervene to prevent an impending national calamity which will lead to
morbidity and outright mortality of consumers of health in Nigeria.”
It warned that warehouses of pharmaceutical companies were
becoming empty due to inaccessibility of Forex to directly buy drugs, active
pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and other products, a situation it said, would breed out-of-stock
syndrome in the inventory of life saving drugs with dire consequences “in the
days and weeks ahead” as most drug companies were exhausting their leftover
stocks from last year.
The Council argued further that pharmaceutical products
bought at the rate of $1 to N400 would not be affordable thus defeating the
goal of the National Drug Policy which advocates the availability of safe,
efficacious and affordable drugs in the health system at all times.
“Flowing from the above, council called on the Federal
Government to facilitate better access to Forex to pharmaceutical companies as
a matter of priority in view of the security dimensions of the out of stock
syndrome which has a propensity to boost the fake drug syndrome as charlatans
will certainly exploit the vacuum created by a lack of basic drugs,” it said.
We are dying one by one —Pensioners
The Kwara State chairman of the Nigerian Union of Pensioners
(NUP), Olamitola Phillip, the vice chairman, Elder Tunji Aransiola and the
secretary, Comrade Ayobamidele Ajibola, in Ilorin, on Friday, said that
hundreds of them had died in the last six months from ailments ranging from
high blood pressure, diabetes, urinary infection, glaucoma, arthritis, stroke.
Phillip, who said that no fewer than five deaths had been
recorded every week among members of the association, added that one of the
highest title holders and kingmakers in the Ilorin emirate, the Balogun Fulani,
Alhaji Durosinlorun Ayinla, who died last week, was a member.
He said pensioners, because of old age, nurse one ailment or
the other and live on life-saving drugs, which have become so expensive in the
market while the pensions are not paid.
He added that part or the whole of their monthly pay goes
into the buying of drugs, depending on the type of ailment they are treating.
“Others who died in the last few weeks include assistant
secretary of the union, Alhaji Agaka, who had been on drug for a long time. He
just slumped and never recovered. He had hypertension.
Others are Elder Kolawole J. O. from Shao; Alhaji Ayinla
Fate from Ilorin; Faseyi Moses from Obbo Ayegunle, chairman NUP in Offa Local
Government, Pa A. B. Olasinde, Pa Oye Alawe from Obbo-Ile, J. K. Abolarin, J.J.
Buraimoh from Omu-Aran, Peter Adebola, Micah Temidayo, Bola Aribalusi from
Koro, Ekiti Local Government Area. He died two months ago,” he said.
The secretary of the NUP in the state, Comrade Ajibola, said
that pensioners that retired in 1980 receive as low as N3,000, N4,000, and
N8,000 monthly pension add that most pensioners in the state are in the age
bracket of 60 and 75 years with various ailments to attend to.
He said those that retired in 1995 are badly hit, adding
that pensioners in the state survive daily on the blessings of God.
“You will pity many of us when you see them. Some of us have
turned to beggars, while others have become hangers-on to politicians who they
follow about to survive. The state pensioners receive regular pension but same
can not be said of teachers and local government pensioners who are the worst
hit in the state. Only those who retire recently get monthly pension of about
N100, 000 and above.
“Our legal case on payment of our pension and entitlement,
started in 2008, is still at the Supreme Court. We have been sending death
certificates of deceased members to the Supreme Court to buttress our argument
of increasing death rate among us,” he said.
The pensioners, who called on the state government to pay
the N1.68 billion owed them as pension and gratuity, said the payment would
avert untimely death in their midst.
They also want the state government to implement every five
years, review of pension as provided in the constitution.
We are not owing pensions —Kwara govt
Meanwhile, the Kwara State government has said that it is
not owing pensions, stressing that it is up to date with payment of salaries
and entitlements to state workers and retirees.
Speaking to Saturday Tribune in Ilorin, the Senior Special
Assistant to the Governor on Media and Communication, Dr. Muideen Akorede, said
the clarification became important in view of claims in some quarters
suggesting that some pensioners in the state had died since April 2015 as a
result of unpaid pension allowances.
The state government emphasised that local councils are
responsible for the payment of allowances to the Local Government retirees and
not state government.
“Local government councils in the state, which receive
separate allocations from the Federal Government, are responsible for their
pensions and have varying degrees of staff and pension arrears,” he said.
He also said that the councils had been unable to pay their
workers and retirees regularly for the past few months due to the sustained
drop in federal allocations accruing to them.
According to the government, the nonpayment of salaries and
pension is not peculiar to local government councils in the state as most local
governments are facing similar challenges which are reflective of the current
financial situation in the country.
The government, however, noted that the State governor,
Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed is working with local governments chairmen to resolve
the salary and pension crisis at the local governments level, including the recent release of N162m to
augment allocation for the payment of July salaries, adding that the government
was considering other strategies to
assist them within its available resources.
The government, therefore, called on pensioners and labour
unions as well as the opposition to be considerate and show understanding.
Naira falls to 412/dollar
The naira was quoted at an all-time low of 412 per dollar on
the parallel market on Friday as a dollar shortage persists, traders said.
Traders told Reuters that some bureaux de change operators
had been finding it difficult to access their forex account and get dollar
supply after the central bank suspended nine commercial lenders from the
market, putting further pressure on the local currency.
On Thursday the naira closed at 409 per dollar on the
parallel market. On the interbank market it traded at 315 compared with 305 the
precious day.
Source:Tribune
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