THE NEED TO REVIVE NIGERIA'S AILING HEALTH SYSTEM

Nigeria is a country blessed with so many resources especially natural and human but unfortunately, we have failed to channel these effectively for the betterment of the society particularly to our health system.

Instead of the government to provide jobs, create scientific laboratories for research without power outage, put money in the research of diabetes, brain disorders like Alzheimer’s disease and other mental illnesses, rather they pump money into the next coming elections. They do not truthfully tackle poverty, hunger and unemployment.

Many of us are just lucky to be alive. We are not sure if we are completely healthy because we do not get the best of health care in terms of proper medical check-up and treatment.

I see patients on the wards many of which will die because of our poor system. The government has neglected their roles when it comes to proper delivery and maintenance of health.

The emergency room is almost nothing to write home about. Facilities are lacking. There is always a shortage of one material or the other. It is not in any way standard. No proper insurance policy. Insurance only covers some certain medications and investigations. You will have to pay for the more expensive ones in a number of cases. Patients cannot afford most investigations let alone treatment. Most patients die because of lack of funds. When such funds are available, there is the problem of out of pocket spending.

When you add both the implicit and explicit costs incurred on health care, the whole resources are gone.

Governments at all levels need to wake up fast. There is need to revive our primary health care centres across the country. They are not adequate and adequately equipped. There is shortage of man power. Staff members are not properly remunerated. This has resulted in a poor working spirit among health workers. Only a few health workers want to stay in the rural areas.

There is a lot of pressure on the tertiary health system.  Many at times, the secondary health system is omitted. It is as if, they don’t exist. For proper health care delivery, there has to be effective referral system beginning from the primary health care centres through the secondary health care centres which are taken charge by most state governments before we can now reach the level of the tertiary system which are largely controlled by the federal government.

I’m not sure we can really boast of organ transplantation as of now in Nigeria apart from kidney transplantation which not too many centres are involved. Other ones done are cornea, gut and skin. No open heart surgery or liver transplant is done in Nigeria because as of now, there are no facilities. People who need these are given referrals to India, South Africa, UK and the US. Referrals have even been sent to Cameroun for paediatric heart surgeries. What a diabetic nature we have as we are suffering in the midst of plenty.

The developed countries of the world are now talking about robotic surgeries, telemedicine and minimally invasive surgeries to a large extent. They transplant heart, kidneys, livers at will.

Medical research centres should be established across the six geopolitical zones with adequate funding and stable electricity. Stable electricity will ensure the preservation of blood and other body tissues as well as vaccines and drugs.

 I believe this outcry is necessary. It’s a shame that Nigeria has not fully combated polio. India with a population of over 1 billion has successfully eradicated polio. Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nigeria are now remaining. It is a shame that we share statistics with war torn countries. Maternal mortality and under five mortality are still very high. 

We experience a double burden of both communicable and non communicable diseases to a large extent because of the scourge of HIV/AIDS.

On the issue of HIV and AIDS, Nigeria now ranks second largest country with the largest burden of HIV/AIDS. We need to ask about the funds being channeled on a yearly basis to the management of HIV/AIDS both at the state and federal levels.

On the demographic transition scale, Nigeria is still between stage 1 and stage 2 as we can’t conveniently put Nigeria in stage 2 with a high fertility rate and a little decline in mortality rate. Scandinavian countries like Norway and Sweden are in stage 4 with low fertility and low mortality rates because of the advancement in their health care system. In Nigeria, life expectancy for females is at 47 years while that of males at 45 years. There is a multiplicity of factors responsible for this.

We really need a drastic change. The strategies currently employed are obviously not working effectively. It is evident that there is corruption which is the bane of our problem.

Our primary health care has to be firmly established, adequate in number and well equipped. Health workers need to be motivated and properly remunerated. There need to be a good referral system. The tertiary should not always take the burden. It should be the last resort. Other factors that may cause delay in assessing health care should be addressed.

Primary delay explains the education and attitude of the citizens to health care. Secondary delay which looks into factors like transportation to health care facilities and tertiary delay which can be combated by making sure that man power and equipments are available and functional even after the primary and secondary delays must have been by-passed.

Government needs to increase the budgetary allocation to health. This is very germane and corruption must be tackled with sincerity.

We need to save our mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, young ones who are the future of Nigeria.

This article was published on Ynaija Online Magazine on 10th June, 2013: http://www.ynaija.com/opinion-nigerias-disintegrating-health-system/