The price of living in Nigeria

 Hey guys welcome to the blog. I'm sad today, I recently played house guest to a friend and her brothers, they were nice and generous with me. Today, one of the brothers is no more.

A friend of mine had once said, "the price of living in Nigeria is our lives", and I didn't dwell much on it till this morning. Next year elections will commence and our aspirants are already garnering supporters - from the elite class to the laymen, yet, these candidates are the recycled lot we've been accusing of corruption, avarice, negligence, poverty increment, and what not. But they're out there with the same song and dance at the same frequency, with the same gimmicks. 

Promises like employment opportunities, better road networks, better security, curbing or obliterating ASUU strikes, improved health care and the fallacies can go on and on. Let's stick to health care for today's post. If you've never had a run-in with the Nigerian public health system you're blessed and utterly privileged. Worldwide, we appreciate the fact that all public health institutions complain of being understaffed and overworked, but in Nigeria, there is an influx of negligence in these institutions. 

A 2017 survey on medical errors in Nigeria published by Archives of Medicine and Health Sciences showed a prevalence of negligence at 42.8 percent per 145 medical practitioners.

According to the report, the three most common errors were:- error of medication prescription, which was put at 95.2 percent; error of radio-laboratory investigation ordering at 83.9 percent, and error of physician diagnoses at 69.4 percent.

The Rules of Professional Conduct for Medical and Dental Practitioners, also known as the Code of Medical Ethics, specify professional negligence as – failure to attend promptly to a patient requiring urgent attention; incompetence in the assessment of a patient, making an incorrect diagnosis, making a mistake in treatment, prescribing the wrong drug in error, asking several others.

Medical practitioners are also governed by ‘The Hippocratic Oath,’ where they pledge to serve humanity to the best of their ability and without discrimination of any sort.

The Premium Times Nigeria reported on the 19th of September, 2017 that - 90% of deaths in Nigerian hospitals was due to the negligence of health workers. Can I tell you a sob story? This news came a day after I lost the love of my life in a public health institution, his case was that of professional negligence at its worst. Suffice me to say that the private institutions are not much better off in terms of treatment as most atimes they're owned by consultants and doctors shuffling their time between public and private practice, but negligence is definitely not their forte.

Ben Murray Bruce, a former senator/founder, Silverbird Group, took to his Twitter account on August 10, 2020, lamenting on the issue.

“I am worried about our medical profession and how they treat patients. Have you ever sued a doctor or a hospital in Nigeria for negligence that resulted in the death of a loved one, or do you just say it was the will of God? This is serious. We must begin to ask questions.

Back to my host's predicament: His friends took him to a private hospital first but they referred them to LASUTH since it's a general hospital and could handle his case. Lasuth kept delaying in everything. They finally did a CT scan to reveal he was bleeding in the brain. Took them forever to get their neurosurgeons to come in, and in the meantime he still needed oxygen to breath. They kept rationing it, claiming it had finished and they didn't have backup. He just stopped breathing and died.

Let me reiterate, over 90% of deaths in our public health institutions are as a result of negligence. Ask your neighbour, brethren in the church, co-workers, acquaintances, or just read stories online, these events are recurring, everyday, every other week, month or year. Where are the leaders, the policy enforcers or the people who care about the average Nigerian patient? Where's the humanity? 

When you go out to vote, remember the casualties of our failed system. Let it be etched in your mind that the price of living in this Nigeria is your life, so at all cost, vote to better your life. Don't sell your votes.