Senate President David Mark said rivalry among health professionals is hindering the sector.

Speaking yesterday in Abuja while receiving the leadership of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Mark said: “Doctors cannot operate independently if pharmacists are not carried along. If a discipline insists that the secretary and the chairman should be a doctor or a pharmacist, obviously, that is an internal rivalry and it is not healthy for the sector. Anybody who is academically qualified should be able to hold offices of any health-related institution in the interest of the profession. It is the ordinary Nigerian that is suffering from the consequences of this rivalry.”

He said the Senate will address all the grey areas in the National Health Bill in order to tackle the rivalry in the sector.

“Now that the bill has been reintroduced in the Senate, it is a blessing because it’ll give room for members to address all the grey areas therein,” he said.