NIGERIAN HOSPITALS TURNED CORRIDORS OF DEATH

[Dan-Borno]

The Tell Weekly magazine in its last week edition did a
job that deserved commendation by all, and we hope
other magazines and newspaper industries will emulate
this type of journalism with the common man at heart
and addressing issues of fundamental which requires
the attention of government.

The present state of our hospitals and the attitude of
our trained doctors is nothing to write about.  You start
with the so called centres of excellence, which is the University
Teaching Hospitals where Billions of tax payers money
are being squandered by both the management and doctors
of the hospital with the help of the Federal Ministry of
Health.  Thank God for the present serious investigation
going on in the Ministry.

I could still recall a mother who brought her sick son to
Maiduguri Teaching Hospital but only to go back home
frustrated by the doctors on duty with out being attended
to.  As early as 5:30 am you will find people trooping into the
hospital thinking that they will be diaonised by the Doctor.
Doctors dont come to the hospital until 10:00 am which is an
approximate of 4 hours waiting, and the worst is when the
doctor decides to go on short break by 12:00 noon, then go
for prayers 1:30pm and 3:30pm respectively not to talk of
other unnecessary discussions by his co-doctors.  At the end
of the day, only insignificant amount of people were being
diagonised while the rest go back home only to come back
the following day to repeat same.

One problem that also needs to be addressed is the way
the doctors allow the Medical Students diagonised and prescribe
medicine without proper supervision from any of the doctors.
A very close associate of mine witnessed an incidence where
over-dose injection was administered to a patient by a medical
student despite caution by the nurses on duty who are more
experienced than him.

This is the institution which is funded directly from the federal
purse and supervised directly by the Minister of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria, what do we think will happen at our
various state hospitals and Primary health centres in the
local government?

Our hospitals are becoming worst and worst.  The above
only talks of the man power not infrastructural facilities.
Imagine, in the whole of Maiduguri (my case study) there is
only two X-Ray machines, one is at the UMTH which you have
to book for at least 2 weeks and the other is privately owned
by City Hospital, both dont attend to emergency cases, this
i came to know when my daughter fell on the stairs and we
were asked to do some x-ray of her head.

Hospitals beds procured since 1980s are the once still in use
at our hospitals.  Patients no longer mind wether they are
offered bed or not, they come with their mats.

Kaiton mu.

[Dave_McEwan_Hill]

This is really scary stuff and i hate to have to say it. I think each state nneds to employ Chief Medical Officers from other places who are used to working in a Health Service that is efficient and give them total power ove r those who work in the Health Service in their states.  They should have the power tosack and even take criminal action against doctors or nurses who do not reach the professional standards that they should. After a few years of really hard discipline Nigeria would have a cadre of medical practitioners doing their work properly  and that will become the habit. US, Scandanavia, France and Germany (even UK but this is dropping a bit) have fantastic high standards in health care but it doesn' t come cheap and there can be no real progress in Nigeria until hosptials and doctors are also properly equipped with up to the minute equipment.

Two incidents stick out in my mind from my time in Kano over twenty years ago and I had thought things might have moved on but apparently not.

I took a student from WTC (and Igbo girl called Florence Orekyeh who was head girl) to City Hospital because she was suffering badly from sickle cell anaemia and they turned a corpse out of a bed expecting her to climb directly into it.
I took my cook Saleh's little son Adamu to City Hospital with a very high fever and found the doctor lying drunk behind his desk.  My wife had to find a vein and put the drip onto Adamu.

[mlbash]

Two incidents stick out in my mind from my time in Kano over twenty years ago and I had thought things might have moved on but apparently not.

I took a student from WTC (and Igbo girl called Florence Orekyeh who was head girl) to City Hospital because she was suffering badly from sickle cell anaemia and they turned a corpse out of a bed expecting her to climb directly into it.
I took my cook Saleh's little son Adamu to City Hospital with a very high fever and found the doctor lying drunk behind his desk.  My wife had to find a vein and put the drip onto Adamu.
[/quote]

Hello Mr. Dave, if this horrible experiece was said by somebody else, not you, i'd have condemn that chap! but this was really horrible. but one thing i must tell you is that there had to be a negligence of duty, cos even in my hospital, where the standard doesn't march that of city hospital, that horrible incidence couldn't had happened. sterilization followed by specific time frame is necessary whenever there is death in the hospital.
But onething we should all realise is that the health personnel are also nigerians like all others, therefore the level of deteoriation of displined personalities is increasing at an alarming rate.

[mlbash]

One problem that also needs to be addressed is the way
the doctors allow the Medical Students diagonised and prescribe
medicine without proper supervision from any of the doctors.
A very close associate of mine witnessed an incidence where
over-dose injection was administered to a patient by a medical
student despite caution by the nurses on duty who are more
experienced than him.

when you are writing on anything, try to get an insight of that stuff you want to talk about! when you said teacing hospital, you are referring to more or less a learning ground, and that's how medical students get to learn the arts of practical medicine the world over!



Our hospitals are becoming worst and worst.  The above
only talks of the man power not infrastructural facilities.
Imagine, in the whole of Maiduguri (my case study) there is
only two X-Ray machines, one is at the UMTH which you have
to book for at least 2 weeks and the other is privately owned
by City Hospital, both dont attend to emergency cases, this
i came to know when my daughter fell on the stairs and we
were asked to do some x-ray of her head.

Hospitals beds procured since 1980s are the once still in use
at our hospitals.  Patients no longer mind wether they are
offered bed or not, they come with their mats.

Kaiton mu.
when you are making any analysis don't ever make your conclusion in generality! this is because, presently i know of three northern states that improved their health services by more than 30%. would you call that getting worst and worst?

these are my observation in your rather naive post Mr dan Borno.



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