In Nigeria today diseases that affect the organs such as kidney stones, urinary retention, complications with the heart, cancer, etc, have become the order of the day as the percentage of patients diagnosed with such diseases in hospitals today has skyrocketed. These problems require immediate medical attention as unnecessary delay may lead to further health issues or even worse scenarios like death of the patient.
It is pertinent for government at all levels and health sector to work round the clock in tackling the aforementioned malaises. However, the government is trying everything humanly possible in providing good health care services, but, still, there is a need for more experts in our health sectors.
Nonetheless, in Nigeria, an estimated 72,000 cancer deaths occur annually and 102,000 new cases are diagnosed from its population of 200 million people. However, among these patients, only a few have the access to medical care, especially in cases of people living in the rural areas where such cases are not treated in the hospital around there.
Health is one of the most important sectors, yet not all have the opportunity to visit hospital when in pain due to poverty. The cost of carrying out various tests to diagnose the problem is astronomical. In other cases where the finance is available, the specialists are very few or not available at all. Most times these experts are visiting doctors who are only on seat on rare occasions.
A patient suffering from the disease of an organ will be booked to see a specialist and have to wait for the specialist who only visits the hospital and does not reside in the state where the patient stays. These patients do not get the medical attention they need and are left to wait in pain which in some cases lead to the situation getting worse. Only a few specialists have the opportunity to start up their private health centers which turn out to be unaffordable to the less privileged or not available in the state and requires the patient to travel a long distance to get medical attention.
Nigerian hospitals lack specialists in specific medical areas mostly because the courses required such as cardiology, neurology, etc are not, available in Nigerian universities. Students do not have the opportunity to specialise and are left to stick with being general doctors. The ones opportune to be experts get the professionalism abroad which not all can afford.
In some cases, those that go to specialise abroad end up settling and residing over there without any willingness to return due to the lack of facilities and infrastructure required to practice here in Nigeria. Patients with severe health issues that require experts are being referred abroad which is rather expensive.
There is a need for the federal government to make provisions for medical specialisation in Nigerian universities on the now common diseases which the citizens of Nigeria suffer from. The equipment and facilities required should be provided to states around the country to reduce the suffering and death caused by lack of medical attention. As it is, only people of high financial status go abroad for medical treatment. What is the fate of the less privileged?
Salamatu Bashir Liman,
Department of Mass Communication, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri,
Borno state
