By Olukorede Yishau
Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison, in her novel, ‘Song of Solomon’, tells the story of Pilate, a woman from a dysfunctional family who was born without a navel. It was in early 1900 America where ignorance reigned among the black community.
Pilate’s mother died shortly before she came out of her, and her father was shot dead when she was still young. At a camp, where she moved to after disagreeing with her brother, Macon, she was cast out the day it was discovered she had no navel, she was considered unnatural and as such evil. So ignorant were those who cast her out that they gave her so much money than she deserved because they assumed she had powers to harm them. So, she was appeased with more money.
“What are you? Some kinda mermaid?” One man had shouted on seeing she had no navel and hurriedly reached for his socks.
The things ignorance makes human beings do can be baffling. Pilate, like the ordinary Nigerian, has been subjected to the worst kind of wickedness by leaders whose knowledge of humanity is warped. They are so ignorant of God’s purpose for making them leaders that over the years, the country has been unable to get right many of the important things.
One such important thing we have not gotten right is healthcare. Don’t get me wrong. We have hospitals, we have them, and in numbers too. Some are called general hospitals, others are called teaching hospitals, and some others are called private hospitals. But, sadly, they are all not equal to one; their combined capacity will shrink before the John Hopkins Hospital or the Singapore General Hospital, a fully-government hospital where medical miracles are wrought daily. The clear sign that they are not equal to one is the rate at which our leaders and the rich escape abroad to treat minor and major ailments.
For me, the most pressing health-related issue affecting the delivery of care in Nigeria is the poor state of our health institutions. From primary health care centres to tertiary health institutions, medical hands do not have the equipment they need to work with, they are poorly motivated, allowances are not taken seriously, and incentives are almost non-existence. The hospitals are also not enough, and the few ones have inadequate hands to attend to patients, thus leading to an overburdened health care sector.
Medicine is a field that develops at a very high speed, but, in Nigeria, you find undermotivated and fatigued doctors still using outdated equipment, and in that kind of situation, you are bound to get wrong results. Little wonder we have so many cases of misdiagnosis. Re-training for doctors also suffer and you find services, even in government-owned hospitals, exorbitant to an average Nigerian who earns a few dollars per month.
With the poor state of the health sector which sees the rich, including our president and governors, always rushing abroad for medical care, patient’s experience is better experienced than imagined. In government-owned hospitals, patients have to contend with poorly motivated nurses who scream at them, doctors who will rather spend time at their private clinics or side gigs, and a situation where they have to source vital health kits and medicines needed for their treatment.
The long wait to see doctors at government-owned hospitals is torturing. And when a patient eventually sees the doctor, medical jargon is preferred to properly communicate with the patient. The wait time for surgery is a different ball game. Patients have had to use their links with men of influence to shorten the months they have to endure excruciating pains.
The wellness of health care providers is not taken very seriously in Nigeria and many of them transfer their frustration to their patients. Resident doctors in Nigeria have gone on strike several times to force the government to pay one allowance or the other. It is thus no wonder that Nigeria has more of its doctors now working in South Africa, America, Australia, and the UK. The shameless manner doctors are treated has made that sector one that contributes greatly to the country’s brain drain challenge.
The time has come, I believe, for us to have that pre-eminent hospital. We don’t need more than one, for a start. The important thing is to make it the best, so good should it be that our leaders and the rich can trust the doctors and equipment there with their precious lives. To help the poor, it can also have a not-for-profit section. Let the rich pay to help the poor live.
Our teaching hospitals train doctors but are unable to provide affordable specialist care for patients. And neither do they conduct researches to bring better care to their patients; this is not because they cannot, but because the resources and equipment to do it are not there.
Like the Singapore General Hospital, Nigeria deserves that flagship hospital that provides a comprehensive range of medical services under one roof, facilitates a multi-disciplinary approach to treatment and caters to over one million patients. Like the Singapore General Hospital, Nigeria deserves that hospital with no less than a 10,000-strong workforce, with one-fifth of acute beds nationwide.
Like the Singapore General Hospital, Nigeria deserves a hospital accredited by the Joint Commission International for meeting its standards of safety and quality in healthcare, meets the criteria for the Magnet Recognition for nursing excellence and offers undergraduate, postgraduate, and advanced training of specialist doctors, nurses and allied health professionals.
Like the Singapore General Hospital, Nigeria deserves that hospital that serves as a clinical teaching hospital for student nurses, radiographers, and therapists. Like the Singapore General Hospital, Nigeria deserves that hospital that can excel in clinical research carried out by its scientists, clinicians, and allied health workers. Like the Singapore General Hospital, Nigeria is overripe for a hospital that can serve as a hub for translational and clinical research.
When we have this kind of hospital, the rich will spend their dollars here, our leaders will stay home and the health afflictions of the poor will reduce. We will reverse a situation where, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), no fewer than 250,000 children in Nigeria die on their first day of life. The figure is the second-highest in the world, according to the 2017 multi-indicator cluster survey. A child born in Nigeria today, no thanks to this situation, is likely to live to the year 2074, while a child born in Denmark is likely to live until the 22nd Century! The quality of life is a different kettle of fish. Most of these children regrettably die from preventable causes such as premature births, complications during delivery, infections like sepsis, malaria, and pneumonia.
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