DANGERS IN NIGERIA HOSPITALS AND WAY OUT - NO 4 IS A SERIOUS CONCERN
Of recent, the health system of many countries around the world was ranked based on the quality of their health care system,but with no too much surprise, our health care system was among the poorest of all the countries that were ranked all over the world. You may be wondering, why is it like that, the reasons are obvious that there many things we are not getting right as regard health care delivery is concerned, that it's why our world ranking was like that.
These issues that have bedevilled our health care system can actually be seen in our hospitals in which it has made Nigeria hospital that supposed to be a haven for the sick has turned to be place where the sick will come and they are not sure of 100 percent safety in terms of care that they will receive.
Our leaders and politicians attitude towards the patronage of our hospitals is a reflection that many things have gone wrong, they know that they can not guarantee their own safety after going into our hospital,they will rather travel abroad for medical care. They are afraid of going alive into our hospital and coming out dead or with complications which they never went with, What will the poor masses do ? They don't have the money to travel abroad to seek better health care delivery, their fate is their hand.
As a person who is working presently in one of the Nigeria hospitals, below are some of what I have found as the dangers present in our hospitals and possible solutions.
1) DANGER OF RIVALRY
Oh my God, this is a big problem among our health professionals in Nigeria hospitals, a lot of competition going on, am this am that,everyone wants to be recognised and play supremacy over others. Some feel they are being oppressed while some see themselves as the master. Our hospital environment it's almost becoming master to slave environment, this is how it looks like to some hospital workers.
The implication of this evil on our patients is that the workers who think they are being oppressed will find it difficult to give their best to the work they are doing and this will have great consequences on the patients care.
To all health professionals in Nigeria, for the sake of our patients who are the reason why we are working and being paid, we must put aside unhealthy rivalry that has serious effect on our patients who we are to care for, let's work together as a team,team work should be our focus, everybody plays a vital role in the care of our patients, assuming the cleaners didn't clean the theatre for a day, can the surgeon do their work? Let's work as one and let everyone's role be appreciated.
2) DANGER OF PRIVATE PRACTICE
Because of greed and lack of contentment among the hospital workers,many of them who have private clinics, laboratory , pharmaceutical shops etc send hospital patients to their private clinics,hospitals, laboratories,pharmacy shops to attend to hospital patients at the detriment of the patients pocket (paying through their nose) and sometimes with less quality treatment. Government hospitals in real sense of it has enough specialists and equipment that can manage the patient more than private sectors, but because of greed and lack of contentment, they prevent the poor patient from getting the best and collect more money from them even without quality car.
My advice for you patients is that, don't allow any health professionals to send you to his own place to access health care,he or she can not give you better treatment than government established hospital,if he tells you that he doesn't have time for you at the government hospital where he is working, report to the management, it's a crime not to do what is being paid for,know your right and act wisely. If the patients begin to say know to this abnormally in our government hospitals and expose those perpetrators, this will begin to bring sanity to our health sector.
Another thing I have noticed about this evil of private practice by health professionals is that some of them even make use of hospital equipment,drugs,reagents for their own patients and when this equipment get spoilt , materials,drugs and reagents get finished, the hospital patients will begin to suffer for it.
All health professionals that do this detestable act should desist from this evil, you are being paid, why are you still causing problems for people you are being paid to treat which are the patients.
3) DANGER OF LACK OR SUBSTANDARD EQUIPMENTS
It's so pathetic and heart breaking to have the expertise but no equipment to work with, that expertise is useless, it's more or less no expertise, that is the situation of most Nigeria hospitals. Many patients have died as a result of lack of equipment that would have been used for their diagnosis and treatment. This is one of the evils that patients experience in our hospital. I know of a hospital with big radiology complex which has been built for some years now but no equipment. Some hospitals who managed to get few of the needed equipment don't even have the standard equipment, what they have substandard, this is a terrible situation, such equipment cannot work for long without breaking down and you can not even boast of or completely rely on their outputs.
This is really endangering the life of the patients in our hospitals.
For the safety of patients,my plea goes to our hospital management to do what it's needful and purchase quality and standard equipment for the good and safety of our patients, they should consult relevant authorities such as government,and private individuals who can donate some of these equipment to our hospitals. In my very hospital, the dialysis machine we are using was donated by a group of people in the state, this good gesture can as well be done to our hospitals in Nigeria.
4) DANGER OF BLOOD TRANSFUSION
Blood transfusion is one of the procedures that most patient pass through in case of shortage of blood in their body which is known as anemia. It's a process of transfusing blood or blood components into another person.
There are many dangers associated with blood transfusion which are not the main aim for this article, but my major concern in this article is the area of screening of donor's blood for transfusion.
Recently, I know of a hospital that was actually using conventional test strips for donor's blood screen for HIV (determine) , HBV, HCV, Syphilis and they decided to switch to ELISA method of screen in which they do this by sending it to another organisation after they have screened the donor's blood with the conventional test strips.
Amazingly, the results they have being receiving from ELISA screening method has been alarming. Bloods that have already been screened with test strip have being showing positive especially HIV, and this has been happening repeatedly.
This hospital finally switched fully to Elisa method, no need to send it to another organisation to screen for them ,though this is very expensive but they chose to do it without considering the additional cost.This is worthy of commendation, other hospital should do likewise.
It is not a surprise that many Nigeria hospitals are yet to upgrade their donors blood screen to ELISA method especially the private hospitals and rural areas, what do you think will be the fate of such patients that are being exposed to this kind of blood. This is one of the reasons why HIV rate is increasing even without sexual transmission.
Patients, my advice to you is that don't go to hospital where blood is not properly screened ,this is dangerous to your health and to our government, do help our hospitals to upgrade to this ELISA method of screening blood by making funds available because it's very expensive, but life is worth more.
NOTICE: If you are a health professional in any of Nigeria hospital, kindly confirm whether your blood screening for donation undergoes ELIZA method by commenting below YES OR NO,let's see the statistics. Private or Government hospital.
TO CONTINUE CLICK HERE
Copyright : ALL SAFETY AND SECURITY TIPS
All rights reserved, this material is not allowed to be reproduced ,published, rewritten, broadcast or redistributed in part or whole without prior written permission to ALL SAFETY AND SECURITY TIPS
Contact : arisetayo@gmail.com
Don't forget to share, love is in sharing.Kindly click the buttons to share on social media
No comments