Worrisome patronage of quack healthcare givers

The recent revelation that private hospitals and clinics in Nigeria are engaging the services of quack nurses following the dearth of that category of healthcare givers should ruffle feathers in the medical circles.

According to a survey conducted by a national daily, the country is home to about 150,000 registered nurses serving a huge population of over 200m. This translates to one nurse to 100,000 patients. This is a far cry from the 40 nurses to 100,000 patients recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The ugly situation has led to private hospitals and clinics turning to quacks to fill in the gaps. Even before now, many private healthcare destinations were in the habit of engaging the services of these quacks designated as auxiliary nurses, thus putting the lives of their patients at risk. In fact, many unsuspecting patients have been sent to their early graves by these quacks, while others are left with complicated health challenges.

Quack healthcare givers are not found in private hospitals alone. Some local pharmacies and patent medicine stores engage ill-qualified hands.

Activities of quacks are thriving across the states because the extant law regulating healthcare practice is either kind to them or is not being enforced to the letter.

It should be a cause for worry that the country’s healthcare sector is bedeviled by dearth of medical personnel across the board. Many factors can be attributed to this sorry state of affairs: hostile environment, poor remunerations, lack of medical facilities or antiquated ones where they are available, sporadic trade disputes, rivalry among various cadres of healthcare givers, heavy workload due to shortage of personnel and attraction to work overseas offered by good working conditions.

It is public knowledge that the ratio of doctors to patients in the country has degenerated to one to 2,500 patients. The ratio is a far cry from the one doctor to 600 patients’ recommendation of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Going by the current population of Nigeria, over 300,000 doctors would be required to meet the WHO’s recommendation. This means that Nigeria must produce at least 10,000 doctors annually for the next 10 years to join the workforce. However, findings have shown that Nigeria produces about 3,000 medical doctors annually across the medical colleges that have been given accreditation.

Although there are no statistics in respect of the number of Nigerian nurses fleeing the country for greener pastures, the federal government appears unperturbed by the exodus. This was evidenced by the statement credited to the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Dr. Chris Ngige, sometime ago to the effect that the nation has abundant medical personnel to spare.

Not too long ago, a worrisome scenario was also painted by a study conducted by the Nigerian Polling Organisation (NOIPolls) in partnership with the Nigeria Health Watch (NHW) which showed that the seekers of better deals abroad even cut across the board. They included junior and senior doctors in both public and private hospitals, resident doctors, consultants, medical directors, nurses/midwifes and corps members.

The NOIPolls, while advancing reasons for the ongoing brain drain in the health sector, listed among others challenges such as high taxes and deductions from salaries (98%), miserable remunerations and emoluments (91%) as well as the huge knowledge gaps that existed in the medical practice at home and abroad.

It further said that the survey was intended to drive the much needed reforms aimed at redesigning a health system that would be responsive to the healthcare needs of the nation.

According to the organisation, 87 per cent of the medical practitioners surveyed also believed that the federal and state governments were not concerned about addressing the daunting challenges facing doctors and other healthcare givers. It gave a breakdown of those desiring to practise in better climes as Britain (93%), the United States (86%), Canada (60%) and Saudi Arabia (59%), among other nations.

Given the prevailing economic situation in the country coupled with the dearth of doctors, many Nigerians now seek solutions to their health issues from quacks and unskilled trado-medics. Others resort to self-medication with grave consequences.

The dearth of nurses across the states also raises fundamental questions: Are the various schools of nursing and midwifery no longer operational? Are Nigerians shunning nursing education, even though the entry requirements for nursing education are not as demanding as those needed to enter the universities and other tertiary institutions?

Government at all levels has a responsibility to safeguard the lives of the citizenry by providing good quality services through proper staffing of its healthcare destinations as well as ensuring the availability of same for private hospitals and clinics to source from. Nature, it is said, abhors a vacuum. Where qualified hands are not available, quacks will fill in the gaps.

It is high time government stopped hiding behind one finger, pretending that all is well. The current scenario of shortage of health personnel and the lackadaisical disposition to the sector across the board do not portray us as a nation determined to achieve the Universal Health Coverage by the year 2030… a target that is just few years ahead.