Guest Column

NigerianNews

Charles Oguntade
aderantitade@yahoo.com
Deputy unit manager
Goulburn Valley acute adult mental health
Shepparton, Australia

My prayer and hope is that someone will show mercy for the common man that dies everyday because of poor and disorganized health system in the country. Just a little sincere improvement will go along way.

Total Collapse of Health System: A time bomb waiting to go off.
by Charles Oguntade

---

Every time I think about the health system in Nigeria and compare it with what operates in other parts of the world, my heart bleeds. Over the years, I have thought over why our situation is so different but I am unable to find any good reason, sometimes you will even want to think may be it’s a kind of a curse or perhaps is just our way of life. Even countries that are less privileged in both human and material resources are able to get it right to some extent.

I am surprised that people in authority that manage most of the affairs in Nigeria health system are unable to make any meaningful impact, in my adult years I have witnessed several governments and different administrators in the health system yet instead of seeing any improvement the whole thing continues to get worse. It will surprise you to believe these are same people that have visited many countries around the globe and observe how the health system works there, also planted there families both close and extended everywhere and continue to finance them with our common resources to enjoy good facilities provided by other countries. An average political office holder in Nigeria of today will prefer to manage his headache or common cold in America or Europe rather than using made in Nigeria panadol.

The issue of brain drain is another huge factor that the government are not responding to, as at the last count, Nigeria has lost quite a huge significant numbers of nurses and doctors to the western world than any other country in the globe. And these are experienced and very productive individuals who will perhaps prefer to remain in there home country and comfort if things are really working. In my assessment, I have come to realize that the reason for migration of health professionals is not totally because of poor financial remuneration, at least if someone could decide to relocate to a neighbouring African country not even Europe, America, Asia, middle east or UK then his reasons will be something else rather than money which could be better service delivery. I have been working in the health industry of Australia for some time now and you will be amazed with the organization as a whole. The system is made available and affordable for everyone, you don’t pay a dime when you visit any public health facility for care and even if you prefer or decide to go for privately-owned health facilities government still subsidizes whatever you are going to pay for what ever treatment you go for and the charges are standard prices that could be afforded by almost everyone.

In our own case what you see everyday is enough to think of ending your life, someone that is still struggling to eat will be asked to bring N50,000 before he could be admitted into a public hospital, most of these hospitals could only qualify as a dispensary in the real sense of it, Teaching hospitals will be struggling to source for the least common equipments to function on the ward on day to day running, out of frustration and poor pay, hospital staff have reduced themselves to a common tout always looking for means and ways to rip off unsuspecting, innocent and very poor patient and relatives. Nobody really cares to check this, because corruption has become a watch word for everyone right from the topmost person in government to the lowest cleaner in the office. I could remember the time the government decided to rehabilitate the teaching hospitals in the country, the end story was a monumental corruption in high places.

A small clinic of just ten beds in Australia can boast of the best of diagnostic equipments you can think of, when you ask a patient to go for CT scan in Nigeria, most of them that could struggle to raise the huge cost always conclude that should be the cure to there ailment because I do not see how you will explain to a poverty stricken individual that this is just to find the cause of his problem and he will agree with you, many doctors don’t even order for it because of its availability and affordability it. An average doctor or nurse does not even know which is the ideal procedure that could promote safety for his or her patient because they always improvise with something else.

My prayer and hope is that someone will show mercy for the common man that dies everyday because of poor and disorganized health system in the country. Just a little sincere improvement will go along way.