By Yinka Shokunbi
Each time healthcare professionals have cause to vent their anger among one another, the happenings at the foremost University College Hospital UCH Ibadan, has often been the point of reference.
The hospital is about the only federal tertiary institution in the country that has recognizes the fact that “every healthcare worker gets to the peak of their career in their professional lifetime”, says the Chief Medical Director (CMD) Professor Tope Alonge.
According to Alonge, “We have watched in awe how the position of the hospital has been a source of disdain among the healthcare force in recent times but we make bold to say, in UCH, we don’t discriminate and we implement government directives to the letters”.
According to him, when the federal government issued the circular that it is right that every professional get to the peak of their career, we see it as the right thing to do.
“Very soon, we are going to even have Director of Pharmacy, Nursing, Physiotherapy and of course, all these people are level 17 officers. We must really give people their due rights because they deserve it”, said Alonge.
He however noted that the only unfortunate thing perhaps is
“the fact that when the Ministry introduced the Consultancy grade in other disciplines, it was without the consent of everyone and so there was confusion. But then, the terminology which is confusing to the public is being looked at and a committee by the federal government is addressing the terminology.
“The one that excites me most is that of the pharmacy, called clinical pharmacy. They have operated very diligently and nobody can question their approach to care.
“If you have send a prescription to the pharmacy department and the drugs are not compatible, the pharmacists will comfortably write on the prescription back to you to kindly review the prescription or asking for a discussion.
“That is what is called clinical pharmacy; otherwise, a young doctor, by virtue of the limited experience in particular area may want to mix drugs not deliberately but out of the fact that he has not had deep experience enough to know the limitation.
“And the pharmacy will not say I don’t want to give you the drugs, rather will write to the doctor. So we have a good working relationship with our pharmacists.
“In UCH we have regular town hall interaction where everybody would vex their liver and we talk to each other as brothers and sisters. At the end of the day, we go back with everyone knowing their limits”.
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