There is a proverb that says ‘shame is worse than death’ I guess that’s the level we are at several sectors in Nigeria at the moment. There’s no point going into details about the various sectors as my focus is on health today.
I and millions of other people living within and outside the
shores of this country have always said
that the Nigerian health sector needs serious overhauling. Like a friend said
the other day “we need to start from the very beginning”. The beginning in the sense
that we need to go back to exactly how the colonial authorities taught us
modern medicine.
Remember the days of dispensaries?
I don’t get it. Lives are being lost in thousands on a daily
basis. I am not talking about the lives being lost through attacks from book haram,
Fulani herdsmen et al. Rather; I am talking about the lives being lost as a
result of the level of decay the health sector is encountering at the moment.
A couple of days back, a few doctors who were on their way
to Abuja for a conference lost their lives not just because they had a fatal
accident but mainly because they were not be properly attended to at the
hospital they were rushed after the accident happened with flimsy excuses until
some of the people who had survived the accident eventually died. The hospital
lacked any of the facilities needed for their lives to be saved. Phew! Those were
silly avoidable deaths.
Yesterday, I was going through facebook and I saw a picture
of a young lady I knew while growing up back in the days, as a friend of mine
wrote a beautiful message about her and eventually ended it with “REST IN PEACE”.
When I saw that part of the message, my heart fell.
I became most outraged when I eventually heard how she died.
So painfully shameful for our doctors and the health sector entirely. The said
lady was ill and she was told it was ‘fibroid’ and was being treated for it
until several months later another set of doctors diagnosed cancer of the
colon.
Haaa! Please is there any doctor in the house? So all the
while the poor lady was going about getting treatment for fibroid, she was
unknowingly dying from cancer as the thing was gradually spreading. Wrong
diagnosis again just as Gani Fawehinmi was wrongly diagnosed as well as the
late beautiful gap-toothed NAFDAC boss, Mrs Dora Akunyili. What a pain!
It is only in this country a doctor will tell you one
strange thing just for him to recommend surgery and collect money only for you
to discover later that the surgery was not actually needed as nothing was wrong
with you. How greedy and wicked can man be?
When abroad and I miss a GP appointment, it is the hospital
that will be pursuing me with calls that I was due for a hospital appointment and
would like to know why I didn’t make it. Back home in naija! For where? Who will
call you not to talk about why you didn’t make it. It’s just how rotten the
system is.
Oh hold on a minute. I recall that they do actually call,
especially the private hospitals and such calls on nearly every occasion is to
remind you of outstanding bills/card renewal. At the end of the day, it is not
about your health but your pocket. What a big shame!
How many people can afford going abroad for medicals? Many people
can barely eat not to talk about buying drugs worth one thousand naira. So what
are we talking about here?
Is there ever going to be a solution or way out of this
nightmare called ‘THE NIGERIAN HEALTH SECTOR’?
We sure do really HELP out of this shame that is worse than
death!
