Janet Ogundepo
The Joint Health Sector Unions have kicked against proposed executive amendment bills seeking to amend health regulatory laws, stating that the bills would grant medical and dental practitioners regulatory control over other healthcare professions in Nigeria.
In a statement signed by the National Chairman, Kabiru Minjibir, and the General Secretary, Martin Egbanubi, JOHESU described the move as an attempt to impose an apartheid regime in the health sector.
The union stated that the bills seek to override the regulatory powers and functions of other health professional agencies, warning that it would spell doom for the health sector.
The union noted that the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria had in 2018 filed a suit seeking a declaration that the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria is the sole body to make rules and regulate clinical laboratory practices and the practice of other professions allied to medicine in hospitals and clinics.
JOHESU stated that the Federal High Court in Abuja struck out the case for want of evidence.
The union stated, “They have again regrouped through their colleagues who are Cabinet Ministers and advisers in the corridors of power, in the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and other Ministries in the President Tinubu administration, to unilaterally propose executive amendment bills for all health professions and to insert in the Medical and Dental Council law clauses to override the regulatory powers and functions of other health professional regulatory agencies.”
The union noted that on many occasions, physicians had resisted the inspectorate teams of the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria, the Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria, and the Radiographers Registration Board of Nigeria, stopping them from performing their legitimate functions.
It added that these often resulted in litigation in which the physicians challenged the professional legitimacy and legal right of other professional health regulatory agencies to exercise regulatory oversight of the practice of these professions in hospitals and clinics headed by them.
JOHESU stated that the courts had always passed judgments validating and affirming the right and authority of other healthcare professions to regulate the practice of their professions as required by law in the best interest of society and patients.
The union cited an example of the Federal High Court, Lagos ruling in October 2007, which validated the specific approbation in law of the PCN to regulate and control the profession of pharmacy in all its aspects and ramifications in both the public and private sectors in Nigeria.
On the proposed amendment to the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria Act, JOHESU said the recommendations to have representatives of community interest on the PCN should be suspended and done away with.
The union stated that pharmacy practice is the only profession listed on the Exclusive List in the health sector for legislation in Nigeria because drug matters are on the Exclusive List by virtue of being reflected as item 21 in part 1 of the 2nd schedule in the 1999 Federal Constitution.
It added, “An involvement of the so-called community stakeholding which is even overwhelmingly higher than that of professionals who have the expertise and legitimacy to modulate professional responsibilities exposes and makes Nigerians both susceptible and vulnerable to values that compromise Good Pharmacy Practice, a global benchmark that defines pharmaceutical excellence.”
The union noted that the suit between the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospitals Complex Management Board and the Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria, whose judgement was delivered in favour of medical laboratory scientists on January 27, 2016, is presently pending on appeal at the instance of OAUTHC Management Board.
JOHESU stated that in the judgment, the court said by virtue of Section 29 of the Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria Act 2003, the profession has been given the status of a profession and enjoys equality with other professions.
The union quoted the court as saying, “Its members cannot be discriminated against in their areas of competence in favour of any other profession which is not empowered by law to perform their functions. It therefore amounts to discriminatory treatment when the members of the profession are shoved aside in favour of the members of other professions in the supervision and headship of their own profession.”
On Section 42 subsections 3 and 4 of HB 2695, which seeks to repeal the Medical and Dental Practitioners Acts and enact the Medical and Dental Practitioners Act 2026, JOHESU stated that the bill failed to define what constitutes a prescription in Nigeria.
The union noted that the section undermines the Community Health Practitioners Act because it expressly forbids Community Health Extension Workers who have been trained by the government to prescribe in Primary Health Care facilities.
It added, “In more specific terms, this section effectively becomes a stumbling block to the emerging global trends of pharmacists and other cadres of health professionals who are now lawfully charged to prescribe certain categories of drugs, which continues to expand for efficiency, particularly with regards to reducing waiting time in health systems all over the world.”
JOHESU stated that it would be in contravention of the rule of the National Assembly to legislate on a matter before a court of competent jurisdiction.
The union stated, “The Medical and Dental practitioners are seeking to deceive the Federal Executive Council and the National Assembly to amend these laws to secure what they could not prove or substantiate in the court of justice. The matter instituted by the MDCAN, which was dismissed, is presently the subject of litigation at the Appeal Court in Abuja, which automatically makes it impossible to enact laws at the National Assembly on all the professional regulatory councils.”
The union called on the National Assembly to reject the bills as currently articulated in the greater interest of peace and stability in the Nigerian health sector.
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