By:
Elijah Akinola
The Medical profession was started to serve humanity, but it is changing to be the number one business in Nigeria of today!
Is life not the same for everyone? Is it different for the rich and poor? Not at all.
The medical facilities a nation’s richest man receives should be received by the poorest man, because only lives and death poor people have that equate the rich people. They may not have decent dress to wear, proper shelter, they may have to struggle to educate child, unlike rich people, but both have one thing in common, LIVES AND DEATH.
Why is government unable to provide free medical aid to Nigerians, with 10% levy as tax on goods and services, compare to some countries that levies 7% and still provides free medical aid?
What we have as a nation is enough for us to share, but the gluttons in the public health sector are to blame for the medical system turning into a business, who mismanaged the government hospitals to establish their own are the main offenders. Why? Sometimes, if you meet Doctor on seat especially in the night, that means you are lucky, some government hospitals will have one nurse on duty, while others are in their clinics attending to patients.
Likely scenario when Governor Zulum of Borno state pays an unscheduled visit to Umaru Shehu ultra modern hospital at around 1am on July 29th. The Governor could not find a single medical doctor on duty out of 10 doctors, he placed a call to them, none of them answered not knowing it was the Governor that was calling, they were all busy at their private hospitals.
Another point is inability of government to track down every equipments and consumable items purchased, and to take inventory monthly, quarterly or yearly. Many camouflage cylinders without oxygen in them, while some don’t even have cylinders at all. Many equipments which are basic life saving equipments, that should be like sphygmomanometer in any hospitals, we don’t have it in our government hospitals, thank God for Covid19, it’s a blessing in disguise that forced a facelift in the health sector.
Power outage is the problem in some hospitals, especially in boarder towns and communities, where there’s no light and to get fuel is like looking for cocaine to buy. Many people has died as a result of power outage during dialysis, because no power backup. No drugs, some even don’t have needle and syringe, patients will have to go to nearby pharmacy to get it, how humiliating!
Do you know why our hospitals lack all these things? The money budgeted for them has gone into wrong hands or the doctors and others have shared the equipments and consumable items for the use of their own hospitals. Even the irreparable damage they cause the innocent patients at times is the most baffling. Our public hospitals have become a referral office where people are being directed by these public doctors and nurses to their private hospitals/Clinics, It’s pathetic.
All these problems can be solved if a law is enforced, that all government hospital’s staffs should work only in government hospitals. If anyone wants to have his/her hospital as business, such person should resign from government hospital and face the business. No one should be allowed to open a private hospital while still working in a government hospital, we can’t just be blaming government while the people in the sector are busy making their private hospitals functional. With this, all our government hospitals will match international standards.
