UGANDA— The Pharmaceutical Society of Uganda (PSC), has requested amendments to the Veterinary Practitioners Bill 2023.
PSC pointed out to the Committee on Agriculture, Animal Industry, and Fisheries that aspects of the new bill would allow veterinarians to handle medicines unchecked.
Therefore, the regulatory body of pharmacists in Uganda cautioned the government against leaving the regulation of veterinary medicine in the hands of the practitioners.
Edson Munanura, Secretary, PSC said, “Several of the Bill’s substantive clauses decidedly delve into medicines regulation. It should be noted that world over, medicines regulation is divorced from professional regulation.”
Munanura said that all clauses relating to the regulation of veterinary medicines should be removed on the grounds that the National Drug Policy and Authority (NDPA) Act adequately restricts drug dispensation to pharmacists.
“As it stands, the Bill would permit veterinary practitioners to be in possession of classified drugs including Class A drugs whose dispensing the NDPA Act restricts to qualified pharmacists,” Munanura insisted.
Munanura also went on to cite the new Veterinary Practitioners Bill clause 21(3) that would permit a veterinary surgeon to personally prescribe, compound, and dispense veterinary medicines for use in the treatment of an animal under his or her professional care.
According to the Pharmacist, vesting all these functions to veterinary surgeons would promote abuse and irrational drug use.
On the other hand, PSU’s President, Tony Badebye said, “If the Bill gives veterinary practitioners the function of diagnosis, regulating and dispensing then it is not the best practice. The Bill should be restricted to professional practice and not medicines.”
A brief look at Uganda’s Veterinary Practitioners Bill
The Committee on Agriculture, Animal Industry, and Fisheries commenced scrutinizing the Veterinary Practitioners Bill in June 2023.
The bill seeks to provide an institutional framework for the regulation of veterinary practice by providing for the training, registration, and licensing of veterinary professionals and veterinary paraprofessionals, among others.
The Bill seeks to repeal and replace the Veterinary Surgeons Act, Cap. 277 came into force in 1958 and has never been amended.
The state minister for Agriculture, Hon. Fred Bwino Kyakulaga said the regulatory powers will be given to the Uganda Veterinary Council which will be responsible for issuance of licenses to veterinary practitioners to enforce professional conduct and responsibility.
“It will also enable the general public to identify competent professionals and weed out masqueraders and quacks from the profession,” Minister Bwino pointed out.
The bill is cognizant of the important role played by non-professionals who are offering veterinary services even without the requisite education or license.
Hence, the Bill has also proposed that the committee interacts with animal production officers who are not categorized as veterinarians to ensure that their services are captured and regulated in the bill.
The Committee Chairperson, Hon. Janet Okori-Moe supported the proposal to exempt village veterinarians to allow them to continue offering minor animal treatment even without a licence.
“We have been struggling to get a veterinary doctor even at district level. Some of these people who operate at village level use indigenous knowledge which has always worked. We, therefore, welcome this idea,” Okori-Moe said.
On the other side of the aisle, Hon. Veronica Nanyondo (NUP, Bukomansimbi District), the bill’s opponents proposed that instead of creating a new council, the ministry should consider amending the Veterinary Surgeons Act Cap. 277 to empower the Uganda Veterinary Board established under the old law.
The 73-clause bill is expected to improve food security, improve animal health, and welfare through reduced death of live animals, reduced milk yields, loss of sales due to quarantine, loss of breeding stock, and reduced need for re-stocking.
Growing interest to close loops holes in animal health management in Uganda
The Ugandan Cabinet approved the proposed amendments to the National Drug Policy and Authority Act, creating a new body responsible for overseeing the quality of agricultural and veterinary health inputs, formerly under the National Drug Authority (NDA).
This decision was made following a Ministry of Health request to make changes to the law, which creates the NDA responsible for overseeing all health-related inputs, including humans, agriculture, and veterinary.
The amendments to the law have been worked on by the Ministries of Agriculture and Health with a view to regulating this sector more effectively.
There have been concerns about how the NDA has been performing its work, hence the need for a new body to oversee these areas.
The NDA will remain under the Ministry of Health and will focus solely on regulating human medicines, vaccines, medical devices, public health products, nutritional supplements, and any other human health pharmaceutical supplies.
The new body, named the Food, Animal, and Plant Health Authority, will be under the Ministry of Agriculture with the mandate to regulate food, veterinary medicines, vaccines, devices, agrochemicals, and all therapeutic products for plant and animal health.
Minister Baryomunsi explained that the process to amend this law has taken many years, and this decision is aimed at strengthening the regulation of veterinary drugs and vaccines to give plant and animal health its due prominence.
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