Monday, June 17, 2013

Healthcare Delivery: Just my thought.

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.

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Lifestyle



You become what you eat and what you do over the years. The most important thing any human can do to ensure a healthy tomorrow is watch what he/she eats on a daily basis. Health eating bequest us with good health and strengthens the body to fight off diseases. Daily exercise helps you keep fit and trim; it strengthens your muscles and bones and helps to burn off unnecessary fat, and also goes a long way to help your heart stay in optimum condition.
Lifestyle is about the everyday activities we undertake; when we sleep, for how long we sleep, what we drink and eat, if we smoke, the exercises we do, the work we do and where we live.
Prevention is better than cure; it’s said over and over again. Our lifestyle can either predispose us to illness or prevent us from getting ill.
Regular washing of hands after using the toilet or when you come in from work, eating a lot of fruits and vegetables, taking a lot of water and reducing the intake of soda drinks. It’s also healthy to sleep early and make sure you have at least 6 hours of sleep, keep your environment clean and do regular exercise, like walking, jogging, skipping and cycling. We wonder why the people lived for long years in those days; it can all be traced back to their lifestyle. They trek to the farm, eat fresh foods, drink a lot of water, not sausage, biscuit, meat pie, burger, Bobo, viju, lacasera. In our days, we seat behind the desk, too tired to cook so off to the fast food joint, quick sugar from soda drinks, seat in a car that takes you to and from work, never using the staircase always the lift, sits in front of the television with dinner and off to bed from there. Our daily routine in this generation is gradually annihilating us while we watch on happily. So help your child live long, let him/her run around, stop the Bobo and Viju and Biscuits, replace them with fruits and vegetables, give them a lot of proteins; fish, milk, akara, moinmoin and eggs its good for their growth and development. They are the future, they are our hope, feed them well, look after your own health modify your life style, park your cars and motorcycle, trek that distance keep fit, our children need us just as much as we will need them some years to come.
Change your life style!!
Oyedeji Aderemi