KWARA state government Friday alleged that pharmacists in the state are deliberately avoiding to work in the government owned hospitals.

According to the state’s health Commissioner, Kayode Issa in a chat with The Guardian in Ilorin, “we are desperately looking for pharmacists but they are no where to be found. Even those who took up the employments don’t stay for long.”

The chairman of the Kwara state chapter of Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) Francis Olayiwola had two days earlier alleged the refusal by the state government to employ his members into the existing public hospitals in the state.

Olayiwola during the World Pharmaceutical Day said in Ilorin that the state employed 13 members of the PSN even when the required World Health Organisation (WHO) number of patients-to-pharmacists ratio should have been more than 200 pharmacists.

Issa however said, “Employment is a continuous process. We just completed the renovation of six general hospitals across the state. These include the acquisition of the old premises of the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), which at present, after the state’s government renovation, has a capacity of 500 bed spaces.

“This development has led to a very huge need for human resources in the hospitals. Recently, we employed some consultants in various fields, medical officers and other middle level health workers. At present we have 14 pharmacists and 40 pharmacy technicians in the state’s employment.    We have seen the need to employ more but we don’t see pharmacists to employ. Many of them prefer to work in private sector.”

Reacting to the alleged meagre salaries of the pharmacists employed by the state, Issa said, the state has a tradition of paying all categories of its staff their salaries before 27th of every month.