Re: Plight of pharmacists: NASS interns case

This article is in response to the publication titled “Plight of intern pharmacists: Two case studies” in some national dailies which portrays the National Assembly management as insensitive to the plight of pharmacy interns. The National Assembly (NASS) as an organization has been in the forefront of training intern pharmacists since 2003 and over 100 […]

This article is in response to the publication titled “Plight of intern pharmacists: Two case studies” in some national dailies which portrays the National Assembly management as insensitive to the plight of pharmacy interns.
The National Assembly (NASS) as an organization has been in the forefront of training intern pharmacists since 2003 and over 100 intern pharmacists have been trained.
As a result of the pioneering efforts of the pharmaceutical services departments, other health professionals within the NASS medical community have started running internship programs. National Assembly as its contribution to National development is presently training twenty-five (25) intern pharmacists, seventeen (17) dental interns, twenty-two (22) Medical laboratory Science interns and forty-one (41) optometry interns, indeed a large number and a rare fit, that very few if any; federal or state health institutions can match or surpass.
The Pharmaceutical services department of National Assembly has developed and implemented a novel internship training program that has been acknowledged nationally. This training program entails rotational posting to accredited community pharmacies, secondary and tertiary hospitals (for in patient experience), National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD), international and local public health institutions, and some selected pharmaceutical Industries. Some intern pharmacists also had the privilege of being posted to an international laboratory facility in Finland.
These have produced well grounded “eight (8) star Pharmacists” who are doing well both nationally and internationally. The NASS interns from various health professional groups are one of the highest paid interns in the country in accordance with the scheme of service. The management of NASS in response to the growing number of applications for internship and to reduce the number of young Nigerian graduates roaming the streets for internship placement decided to engage a large number of interns this year across all professional groups.
However, as a result of dwindling resources to all government agencies including National Assembly and migration to the integrated personnel and pay system (IPPS), it has become difficult to pay salaries as at when due. The interns have however been paid five months salary and the management has made concerted efforts to pay the backlog as soon as possible. It is therefore uncharitable to say that NASS management is not sensitive to the plight of interns
It must be clearly stated, that it is not only the pharmacy interns that are been owed but also the dental, optometry and medical laboratory interns.
To avoid these ugly circumstances and bad publicity generated by articles such as the above-mentioned publication, the management of NASS is contemplating stopping the internship-training program or reducing drastically the number of interns admitted across board for all professionals. This is definitely bad news for the pharmacy graduates and other health professionals roaming the streets for years in search of internship placement.
At this critical point, we need the support of pharmacists and well wishers nationwide to continue and sustain the internship program at National Assembly especially the pharmacy internship program.
Thus the article under reference was ill-timed, ill-conceived, ill-motivated and written in bad spirit and should be retracted.
Pharmacy Head of Interns 2015/2016, National Assembly Clinic, Abuja, 08065481224