The Nigerian healthcare System is
in a state of disarray. Too many parallel programs, running at the same time
with similar objectives, but totally compartmentalized, maybe it’s a way of siphoning
the grants/Aids.
There ought to be three tiers of
healthcare delivery according to the healthcare system pattern of this country,
Nigeria. The Primary, Secondary and tertiary each taken care of by the local
government, state government and the Federal government respectively. However for
those who have taken a closer look at the healthcare delivery of this nation
its obvious the secondary level of healthcare delivery as been annihilated
almost squashed to death. Various reasons can be alluded to the reason why it’s
so however that’s for some other time. The Primary level of care where most of
the patients should be see with most of the patients’ health needs met is a
cripple!! You see structures everywhere without the appropriate human
resources, building don’t treat patients, but buildings bring in kick-backs!!
Nigeria is a nation drowning in corruption, with its leaders totally oblivious
to the human calamity occurring daily because of their corrupt practices. It will
be myopic to think it’s only the leaders that are contributing to the woes of
the healthcare sector in this country, the workers who are employed to provide
services but only show up at work once a week, how will the users of the
facility get any service?
The state governments are mostly interested
in the Tertiary level of care now, I wonder why? They have neglected their
primary duties of sustaining the secondary level of care, empty hospitals
without equipments of manpower. What is the use of building a 70 bed hospital
without a functional micro centrifuge? Sigh, I know a teaching Hospital in this
country where for days they could not determine the blood level of patients,
their X-ray machine keeps dying and resurrecting or the Ultrasound scan probe
is not functioning!! A tertiary Hospital!!!! Its simply crazy the kind of
things that occur in this country that we all look and walk away from. Its inhumane
for the resources allocated for the proper running of an hospital to be
siphoned, embezzled, stolen by the few miscreants in power and ably supported
by the workers in same hospital with their silence. I thought there was hope
for this country, I believed the country could be salvaged, I thought our
leaders in Abuja where our problem but we are our own biggest headache. We simply
do not count the cost of embezzling monies meant for equipments, or day to day
running of a health facility, its appalling. Imagine, a 35 year old man, with 2 children
and a pregnant wife was involved in an auto accident, due to bad roads, he was
brought to the emergency unit of an hospital, and he needed blood alas the
blood bank’s refrigerator supplied by the contractor packed up 3 months ago so
there is no blood stored. His relatives had to source for blood from a
laboratory outside before their arrival patient was dead!! If the contractor
who constructed the road had done a good job, perhaps the accident would have
been averted and if the contractor who supplied the fridge had been honest to
supply a functional one not a dead one because of the kickbacks he had to pay
to get the contract, they would have been blood in the bank, but who care? The wife
and children will bear the brunt of some people’s callousness and those people
will go to church or mosque to do thanks giving that God provided for them and
their family?!!
It is simply amazing the country
we live in!!! Health is wealth but in Nigeria, Health means nothing, NOT A
THING!!! No wonder the nation is so ‘sick’!
So the shape of our healthcare
system instead of a pyramid is an hour glass shape, with majority of the
healthcare delivery at the tertiary level, almost zilch at the secondary level and
few at the primary level! How does a nation sustain such a healthcare system, with
corruption eaten away at its very core daily?
What is the solution to this
problem bedeviling the healthcare sector? Not simple, all I know is we can’t
keep building on a weak structure or build a parallel structure without doing
away with the former structure. The primary healthcare delivery should be given
priority; all grants coming into the country should be streamlined and
adequately monitored, we need to generate viable that that we can work with not
this cooked up thing!!! The most pressing need to make the Healthcare sector
function effectively is HONEST people!!! Do your job, go to work, give the very
best of your ability and be sincere. Lastly don’ sell your vote nor your
conscience to the highest bidder and it’s not about where the person comes
from, it’s about can this person deliver honest, effective leadership? Tribes,
tongues, skin colour and religion may differ the health challenges are similar across
board.
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