A man complaining of severe headaches was rushed to a hospital in Lagos. The hospital refused to admit him into intensive care unless a significant deposit (N250,000) was made. With no such amount of money coming from the ATM, the man died.
Another man was rescued from a road traffic accident on one of our highways by villagers. There was a local vehicle available to take him to the nearest general hospital. The hospital staff (a nurse and a doctor) came out to look at him in the back seat of the vehicle. One look was enough to send them scurrying away saying the patient cannot come to their casualty: “We cannot manage him here; we have no beds available. He is either dead or dying; he cannot come and die here. In fact, where is the Police report?”
He died soon after: en route to another crummy hospital in Nigeria.
This article will show that the patient, the hospital and the doctor are blameless. The responsibility is collective and action is necessary to save lives.
Failure to plan
The recent farcical recruitment exercise engineered by the clueless and downright stupid immigration people highlighted the massive deficiencies in our system. There was no interest in the welfare of the job seekers, hence the inadequate preparation for their wellbeing. Many ended up suffocating, passing out with hunger, thirst and sun stroke: setting the stage for the subsequent calamity. The Nigerian Immigration Service made over N1bn from the stampede: a major incident that hospitals were unprepared for! Our hospitals have no major incident plans. No plans!
Nigerian hospitals
This healthcare system is set to fail Nigerians at the point of need. If you were truly sick, our hospitals are designed to make you worse, not better; to complicate your life, not improve it; to impoverish you, not enrich you; and to kill you unless God intervenes. Some Nigerian doctors and nurses actually help you pray to God to intervene in your case, despite their best intentions!
This is the ugly face of Nigerian hospitals — a repulsive face in a country supposedly full of intelligent people who cannot fashion out better healthcare system for themselves! Did we ask for this kind of healthcare system? Did we ask for this ugliness?
Emergency medical services
All our hospitals should have an emergency room that is equipped with the basics to admit and resuscitate an emergency patient. Emergency rooms can provide the initial care and stabilise the patient before preparing him or her for onward transfer to specialised units such as trauma centres. These specialised units can handle the most severe, life-threatening injuries and potentially fatal conditions. They should be so equipped and supported to deliver whatever they promise.
Ambulances
One cannot fail to notice that the Federal Road Safety Commission transports the injured and the dead together in the back of pick-up trucks to hospitals. Well, I guess that’s why they are called PICK-UP!
The average hospital ambulance in Nigeria is used to carry corpses rather than the sick. They also ferry nurses, doctors and the accountants; and run errands for the Chief Medical Director. Most of our so-called ambulances are not equipped to save lives during transportation of the sick or severely injured. Ambulance drivers are ill equipped and untrained in basic life support. This is a complete waste of space and brain power.
Proper ambulances, not hearses, must be equipped to provide proper care and support to the patient. Motorcycles, Keke Napep and even air ambulances should be available in this country. Some countries even have the ambulance man riding a bicycle in order to provide much needed care in difficult terrain.
Emergency medical technicians and specially trained paramedics transport complex injury victims to centres where a sophisticated and highly trained interdisciplinary team of health care professionals provides the services needed to save that person’s life and prevent further disability or physical deterioration. It does not require brain surgery to know we need to train drivers as paramedics (and we have a few job seekers still alive!).
Emergency care
This means care provided in an emergency situation without immediate recourse or demand for payment. There is truly no ‘emergency care’ in Nigerian hospitals. Just in case they don’t know: emergency care means full standard care, provided at the point of need, no matter who you are and no matter what you are. Be it a head injury, spinal cord injury, massive stroke, bleeding peptic ulcer, gunshot injury or an ectopic pregnancy, whatever. Even rape can present as an emergency!
Finally, is the Nigerian Police mandated to save lives or annihilate Nigerians? What is this persistent demand for ‘Police report’ following injuries or rape? Does it make sense to you? Why the Police can’t be called, informed, telephoned or invited AFTER the medical team has done their job baffles me. The ‘intellectual’ Nigerian Police Force should please clear this issue with immediate effect.
We can have the healthcare system we deserve if we think hard and work together. We, the beautiful, deserving and intelligent people that we are!
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