It is evident that Nigeria’s health care sector is in a deplorable condition; poor health care infrastructure, poor funding as well as poor policy implementation which leads to under investment in the sector.
With reports showing a continuous migration of Nigerian doctors abroad in search of better work conditions, leading to drastic reduction in number of doctors in the country, as well as the high cost of medical treatment, many Nigerians will not be able to access healthcare as rich would seek for better medical care outside the country.
Statistics from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the.World Bank have shown that the Covid-19 pandemic could likely halt two decades of global progress towards universal health coverage. It also indicated more than half a billion people are being pushed into extreme poverty due to health expenses.
These were contained in two complementary reports, launched on universal health coverage day, highlighting the devastating impact of Covid-19 on people’s ability to obtain and pay for health care.
For instance, my dad received an urgent call at 7pm. The call was from an.unknown person to him but brief, “Do you know Mr Andrews Shehu? He is in the hospital”.
My dad quickly called and established that they had spent more than an hour trying to get the 58-year-old man, who was badly injured as a result of an accident along Science School Kuru road in Jos, admitted into the emergency ward of a hospital in Jos.
The patient was in comma not because of his injury was incurable but because treatment was being delayed with hurdles set by poor hospital management and dearth of workers.
Nigeria has dearth of qualified doctors, thus, the country needs additional doctors as Nigeria loses doctors to foreign hospital in search of better working conditions.
The President, Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Innocent Ujah, said that the current doctors to population ratio in the country is about one doctor to between 4,000 and 5,000 people.
“This falls short of the one doctor to 600 people as recommended by the World Health Organisation.
“This means that we need about 303,333 medical doctors now and at least 10,605 new doctors annually to bridge the manpower gap in the health sector.”
In addition, our health care system already struggles with more patients than hospital bed.
While my dad’s friend was finally admitted, the doctor had to over work and obviously got tired; the hospital was in shortage of doctors, so he had to do the work of three doctors.
Although my dad’s friend survived an hour of waiting, many others did not.
In my view, good management of both government and private hospitals is an important aspect of making health care accessible to all and sundry in the country. We have premature death due to hospital delays in treating patients.
However, the ministry of health needs to create a contralised monitoring system that ensures standard delivery of health care at all levels.
Shem Ayuba Hosea, Department of Mass Communication, Abubakar Tatari Ali Polytechnic, Bauchi, Bauchi state
