SIR: One of the basic responsibilities of any government around the world is to provide social amenities to the people.
One of these social services include the provision of hospitals both at local, state and federal levels.
Indeed, there are several buildings and structures in Nigeria that are tagged hospitals but they are not in the true sense of it.
For instance, they lack modern equipment with acute shortage of doctors and other medical personnel.
Nigeria’s government seems to have totally abandoned this very important sector because the ruling elites have nothing to do with Nigerian hospitals.
Governors, president, permanent secretaries, local government chairmen, top government officials and the wealthy either go abroad or get medical help from private hospitals.
The amount of money spent abroad on what is now termed medical tourism is enough to provide good equipment to our public hospitals and to also give our local doctors the required training.
More alarming is that our hospitals seems to be full of quarks and our hospital run by incompetent doctors. Something seems to be wrong with medical training in the country and half-baked doctors abound.
Today, nurses have become doctors especiallyint state owned hospitals, they perform all the duties and responsibilities of doctors and they even establish their own private hospitals.
Dereliction of duty is another issue that should not be left out, our medical doctors and senior nurses have become business tycoons.
When you go to public hospital they will refer you to a particular private hospital and when you go there you will find out that they are the owners of that hospital, even if they did not directly refer you to a private hospital owned by them you must go there because they will never give you the required attention.
Recently, my sister who was in labour was taken to Gambo Sawaba General Hospital , Kaduna and we were told that she could not deliver the baby by herself and if she stayed too long her womb would explode and it might cause either the death of the mother or the child.
The senior nurse who was doing the work of doctors told us to go to Ahmadu Bello University teaching Hospital because the state government provides operation materials for only 20 pregnant women per week.
He also told us that the materials were not provided for that week because of good Friday and Easter Monday holidays, my elder sister begged them to give us the list of the materials needed so that we could buy them but they said it was beyond our financial capability, it was only the government that could afford it and distribute to the hospitals across the state, the main reason why they treated us that way was for us to go to their own private hospital which was not far away.
It was much latter that I remembered that our elder brother is a friend of former medical director of the hospital, I called my brother and informed him about the situation.
This same man who had earlier referred us to the teaching hospital had operation on her and brought out a baby girl while I was at the chemist shop trying to buy the medicines prescribed by him.
For this barbaric and inhumane treatment to be curbed, government should ban all government officials and their family members from going abroad for medical care, doctors who are in active service should not be allowed to establish their own hospitals, government should provide all the necessary equipment and materials needed, senior nurses should not be allowed to establish private hospitals and more doctors and nurses should be employed.
Finally, their welfare should be improved.
- Hasheem B Ahmad,
Hashimbahmad@gmail.com