IS NIGERIA MEDICAL/HEALTH SYSTEM PERFORMING UP TO STANDARD? WHAT CAN NIGERIA GOVERNMENT DO TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF MEDICAL SERVICES BEING RENDERED TO THE CITIZENS OF NIGERIA.

We have written articles on this topic in the past and now we are bringing it back again based on our recent findings in medical/health system in Nigeria. In every country of the world, medical/health care system is the key to a healthy nation but we discovered that most University Teaching Hospitals, General Hospitals and other clinics in Nigeria have not been performing up to standard when compared to their counterparts abroad. For so many reasons, most hospitals in Nigeria lack equipment to carry out their duties properly. Teaching Hospitals and the General Hospitals in Nigeria are underfunded, lack of qualified medical personnel to handle patients is another huge problem. Therefore, Viewers Corner News is appealing to President Buhari’s administration to kindly look into these areas. More money should be made available to all the Universities Teaching Hospitals and every other medical/health center in the country so that proper medical care and attention would be given to patients when the need arises. We (Viewers Corner News and the advisory team) are suggesting to President Buhari to create an insurance system where hospitals can get fund assuming an individual is brought to a hospital and has no money to pay at that moment, instead of the hospital leaving the patient with pains until he or she deposits a certain amount of money before treatment can commence. Such practice is very wrong, let the doctor go on with the treatment and ask for money later. Even if the patient has no money to pay, the life must be saved first, then the hospital can get their money from the government’s insurance company which we are suggesting to President Buhari to establish. This is because we have seen cases which would not have caused a patient to die but because of lack of fund from the family of the patient to deposit immediately, the doctor refused to treat the patient and by the time the money required by the hospital was paid, the patient has died. We are suggesting that an insurance policy be provided to suit this purpose. We are also advising that both the medical directors, doctors and nurses of various medical establishments in Nigeria be given proper orientation in this field because is like many of them do not know the importance of their field and what it takes to be in the medical field. They should be taught properly on the code of conduct of this medical field because majority of them lack manners of approach most especially the nurses and midwives in various hospitals in Nigeria. They get angry easily and shout at their patients despite the pains the patient is going through. It is because they lack knowledge, therefore proper orientation should be given to them. When someone is sick, speaking nicely can calm the person down before proper medication is applied but in some Nigerian hospitals our correspondents visited, this approach is lacking. We (Viewers Corner News) are pleading that the Minister of health and the Nigerian Medical Association should jointly carry out proper reforms on this area so that the lives of the less privilege Nigerians who have no money to get treatment abroad when they fall sick should at least have a good treatment here in Nigeria. Another important aspect is the supply of drugs and the equipment for surgery. Please hospitals should make sure that every drug or equipment for this purpose is always in the hospital because we have heard some medical staff complaining of lack of equipment to carry out their duties properly. Once again, we are requesting that the Nigeria government take a closer look on all these issues mentioned in this article and come up with a nice solution that would be favourable to the citizens of Nigeria medically and otherwise. Saving lives should be the first thing any government should do and we hope that President Buhari would act accordingly based on his good records.