The health sector in Kogi state is in dire strait, therefore, appeals are being made on the state government to address the situation in order to avoid the looming time bomb as SALIHU OYIBO reports.
In Kogi state at the moment, the situation in the health sector has in the last three years been deteriorating because of the mass exodus of doctors from public hospitals over poor welfare.
Worried by the situation, the chairman, Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) Kogi state chapter, Dr Kabir Zubair, lamented that non-payment of health workers in the public hospitals across the 21 local government areas of the state has led to the exodus of 88 doctors from the state civil service since the commencement of the current administration.
Dr Zubair disclosed this in February during the third year anniversary of Governor Yahaya Bello. Despite that public outcry, till date, the ugly situation had persisted as health workers are still being owed more than four month salaries.
According to him, “Under the present administration, 88 doctors have left the Kogi Civil Service in addition to those who are seriously searching for a greener pasture elsewhere.”
The NMA chairman, who appealed to the state government to take urgent steps towards tackling the problems, added that there is need to reverse the unfortunate trend before it cripples the sector.
He, however, advised the government to, as a matter of urgency, take steps such as the payment of outstanding salary arrears of doctors and other health care workers, promotion and annual step increment and the implementation of the corrected CONMESS among others on order to address the lingering poor working condition of the workers in the state.
He expressed concern that the vacuum created by the doctors who left the state government hospitals due to poor remuneration, outright non-payment, irregular-payment, under-payment, poor working conditions and lack of healthcare infrastructure will ultimately be filled by medical quacks to the detriment of the people.
At the present, Blueprint gathered that the exodus of doctors from the state civil service is already having a toll in public hospitals especially at the grassroots where the largest population of the people reside.
Although the state government, in the wake of several industrial actions and exit of doctors, recruited additional medical officers including doctors, pharmacists, medical laboratory scientists, pharmaceutical technicians, nurses, record officers and medical laboratory assistants, sadly, the effort could not yield any positive change in the sector as a number of the medical officers had continued to quit owing to issues of non payment of salaries and unfavourable working condition.
Apparently, the consequences of this development are worsening healthcare indices in the state as the situation had been impacting negatively on patients seeking health care services at the state health facilities.
Glaring effects as patients lament
Findings indicate that patients are now forced to wait for too long to be able to see doctors due to fewer number of medical officers on ground to attend to people.
A recent visit Blueprint to Kogi State Specialist Hospital in Lokoja reveals an overwhelming number of pregnant women waiting endlessly to be attended to by only two doctors on duty in the Maternity Ward. It was the same at the General Out-Patient Department (GOPD) as well as other departments that requires the service of doctors.
One of the patients, Odoma Samuel, who summoned courage to speak to Blueprint expressed worries over the situation and appealed to the state government to intervene in the interest of the people especially the downtrodden that do not have the financial strength to access quality healthcare services in private hospitals.
A male gynaecologist at the specialist hospital who however, pleaded anonymity told Blueprint that due to the shortage of man-power, they can only admit about five or six women in labour at a time.
According to him, “The issue is that if you put more women under labour on bed, it would become difficult to manage the situation if there are complications. If anything goes wrong, the doctor would be held responsible and that is exactly what we are trying to avoid.”
A pregnant woman, Asmau Gogo, lamented that due to the overwhelming number of expectant mothers on ground that day, doctors were not be able to attend to her after spending over five hours.
“You can see for yourself; we are more than 60 here. The doctors have just asked the nurses to give us numbers as they can only manage to attend to a maximum of 40 expectant mothers.
“It means that those of us whose numbers are above 40 automatically have to go home and wait for the next ante-natal day which is not healthy for us.
“As it is now, some of us will have no option than to go to private hospitals for ante-natal because even the Federal Medical Centre, Lokoja which would have been the next alternative is equally populated and overwhelmed with patients.
“That is why we are appealing to Governor Yahaya Bello to address issues in the health sector. If health is still wealth, I think the government should not leave any stone unturned towards tackling the challenges faced by the sector.”
Another expectant mother who identified herself as Mrs Mary Johnson said she had no option than to continue to attend her antenatal care at the Specialist Hospital despite the challenges of waiting for long hours before seeing a doctor.
“I cannot afford the money to attend antenatal care in private hospitals in Lokoja because if you are to be booked for a surgery during delivery in any private hospitals, you will be charge between N150, 000 to N200, 000 and where can I get such money. But here in government hospital, with less that N70, 000, the surgery would be carried out perfectly.
Also a visit to Okene and Obangede general hospitals indicates that patients and health officers are equally passing through the trauma of insufficient manpower brought about by non-payment of salaries.
A patient, Abdullahi Andah from Okene local government told Blueprint his ordeals in the hospital when he was attacked by typhoid fever.
Andah said when he was rushed to the hospital in Okene, it took the only doctor many hours before he could attend to him because he was busy attending to other patients who were on emergency.
He urged the government to equip the hospital with more doctors, saying government should also address the deteriorating health infrastructures in order to serve the people better.
In December 2018, a doctor at the Pediatric Unit of Kogi State Specialist Hospital, Lokoja, Dr Amos Ojo slumped while on duty at the hospital.
The doctor was said to be on ward round at noon when he suddenly collapsed due to exhaustion from workload.
Regrettably, the Federal Medical Centre, Lokoja, which ought to have served as alternative government health facility is on a daily basis also overwhelmed with patients due to the current situation.
One of the health officers in the hospital who spoke in confidence said some ailments which ordinarily should have been attended to at the primary and secondary health institutions were now being brought to the hospital which also increased the workload.
He said ideally, patients should not be travelling from far localities to Lokoja just to access healthcare services that ought to be readily available for them at that level.
Dr Zubair said in the last three years, nothing has changed in respect of doctors and health workers’ welfare in the state.
Zubair noted that the last time health workers were paid salary was in October 2018. He therefore appealed to Gov Bello to do something urgently about the salaries and welfare of doctors and workers generally in the state, stressing that “If the current state of affairs is allowed to persist, the best and most valuable workers will continue to leave service.
