The state of the health sector in our country is one that when you are in the system, tears roll down your eyes when you see the loopholes everywhere and you begin to ask yourself why you went through the stressful years of medical school , learning the ideal medical practice only to embrace the reality of you not being able to practice that ideal..... It's indeed am emotional and painful conversation for anyone witnessing it.
Where doesn't suffer? Is it the crumbling infrastructure? Or is it the underfunded hospitals? Or should we talk about the overworked professionals? Or should we talk about the patients? The challenges are not only glaring—they are deadly.
But will doctor's strike action make a difference with even one of these challenges we have?
Let's talk about the facts we have at hand
On the doctor's aspect, Nigeria's doctor-to-patient ratio currently Is a shocking one compared to what WHO recommends, working at a national average of approximately 1 doctor to every 10,000 patients instead of 1 doctor to 600 patients.
Source
Do you know what that means?
It's not that our government don't know that the cause of this deficit is the massive brain drain going on in the country, neither is it that they don't know the causes of these brain drain ranging from poor working environment down to the lack of provision of basic amenities.
The few doctors remaining work through their nose to keep the health sector running, doing more than they ought to do just to keep the system running and the government doesn't even behave like they exist, If this wasn't enough to trigger our government into taking a drastic action, will a strike action really help?
Let's even talk about the other factors affecting health...
Over here where I'm working, people troop in daily in their numbers and what's the problem? Typhoid perforations.Why? Unclean water!!!
Good water supply suddenly became a luxury for Nigerian government that they can't provide for her citizens... Thousands of people are loosing their lives, people are loosing their loved ones just because our government cannot provide something as basic as water supply, is it not painful to talk about?
What about good roads?
How will a federal road be just a lane? Just this night alone, I've seen a child rushed in that had road traffic accident and broke his right femur, I won't even mince words with you, our orthopedic ward is FULL! Fractures everywhere simply because someone can't provide good road for her citizens thereby putting a strain on their general well-being and survival.
The sad reality is that Our government isn't devoid of people without brains, they are just filled with people not willing to do the right thing. They do know the right thing more than you do but they just don't want to do it
Which makes me ask the question again, do you really think a strike action will do anything?
As someone who's in the system, I would be honest with you.
Doctors going on strike will worsen the current situation now.
It will give room for many quackery practices to explode in full force as people will have no other choice but to patronise them.
Even now that we aren't on strike, people still do worst things and you ask a question?
Nigeria can't provide a standard healthcare system for her citizens and yet, they can't also regulate the healthcare sector to ensure no one goes beyond his area of practice? Where exactly do we start from?
Just yesterday, we had to do an emergency surgery for a man who was operated on by a chemist! All because of money. I mean a chemist who probably learnt drug by the roadside from one other chemist.
Just for a simple herniorrhaphy surgery, this man tore the patient's bladder and ended up giving him a sliding hernia..
The whole urine this man was meant to urinate for the past 6 days was pouring inside his peritoneal cavity (his stomach in layman), can you imagine?
Doctors aren't on strike and we are having these kind of cases, what happens when doctors go on strike then?
I really can't go on because my lacrimal glands will fail me....
This is also a call for you to go to teaching hospitals or even if you are not comfortable with the bureaucratic methods before you get attended to and for that prefers a private hospital, always ensure and verify the expertise of the person working there.
When you know what you have to face to regain your health in Nigeria because of our shabby healthcare system, all you will ever pray for is not to get sick!!!
if you fall sick and land in a government hospital, your fate is often determined not just by your illness, but by how lucky you are to find a functional machine, an available doctor, or an empty bed. People die from the simplest things and whose fault is it? When one doctor is the only one taking care of 10000 patients, he probably was taking care of the other 9999 when you came and that determines your fate....
I hope you can picture how scary it is in Nigeria?
The only lasting solution is political will and never a strike action because people will bleed! Millions will die!
Nigeria must see their doctors and nurses as essential assets and make conscious efforts to keep them.
WHERE EXACTLY DO WE START FROM?
N:B: All Pictures Are Mine
Thanks for reading and have a nice day