Some health experts in Anambra, Enugu and Ebonyi states have raised concerns on the state of healthcare delivery services in the country noting that urgent and concerted efforts were needed to address the situation.
The experts, who spoke in separate interviews in the Southeast zone, noted that the state of the various health care facilities across the country were worrisome and needed urgent solution.
They recommended that providing standard, functional and affordable healthcare facilities with highly skilled and efficient staff was a panacea for stemming the steady erosion of confidence in the nation’s health system.
Speaking on the issue, the Chief Medical Director (CMD), Alex-Ekueme Federal Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki (AE-FUTHA), Ebonyi, Prof. Robinson Onoh said the hospital had taken a giant leap in the current move to reposition the healthcare service for better service delivery.
Onoh said that his target was to make the facility one of the best referral centres in the country, improve patients confidence and stem medical tourism.
The CMD stressed that the hospital, as a tertiary health facility, was being repositioned to offer world class service through capacity building of the medical and paramedical personnel, equipping the hospital with medical consumables and equipment.
He said that the hospital had grown to become one of the best medical institutions in terms of possessing the best hands for medical, clinical and non-clinical services in their areas of mandate.
On complaints of wrong diagnosis, wrong drug prescription and indiscipline among other unethical practices in most of the hospitals in Nigeria, Onoh said that the management of the institution had taken a proactive step to ensure such did not happen in the hospital.
“Our focus is to standardise the practice of medicine, ensure that our patients get the best of service and accreditation has been ongoing in the various departments.
“We want to become the best referral centre in the country. Our Hematology Department remains the best; the ophthalmology centre has also advanced,” Onoh said.
The CMD said to achieve work efficiency, the hospital has made training and retraining of medical and non medical staff, a policy aimed at strengthening and sharpening their skills and capabilities.
“On capacity building, our medical staff are sent on training and retraining of medical staff within and outside the country.
“A healthy nation is a wealthy nation and we owe a duty to ensure that our citizens have access to quality and affordable healthcare services,” he added.
Similarly, the Commissioner for Health, Dr Moses Ekuma that state government under the leadership of Gov. Francis Nwifuru has worked to revamp the state’s health sector through the recruitment of medical doctors and other medical staff for the 13 general hospitals in the state.
Ekuma said that the best way to deal with quackery in the medical field was to restore efficiency and effective service delivery to the public health institutions through training of the personnel and equipping the health institutions with drugs and equipment.
He explained that Nwifuru has vowed to overhaul all the moribund general hospitals located in the 13 local government areas of the state to curb the spate of deaths in rural areas, especially in the hands of quacks.
“The governor, in 2024, announced the release of over N11. 2 billion for the purchase of equipment for the 13 general hospitals and our general hospitals are wearing new looks with medical consumables fully in stock,” Ekuma said.
A medical laboratory scientist in one of the public hospitals, Mr Louis Akam noted that some medical laboratory scientists have had their practising licences revoked for allegedly indulging in manipulation of tests results and other unethical practices.
“Yes, it is true that patients sometimes receive wrong diagnosis and medical test results that are false most times due to machine failure or interpretation of the test result.
“But the Medical Laboratory Association of Nigeria is making sure that the system is sanitised and that sanctions are meted out to erring practitioners,” he said.
In Anambra, the State Government says it is actively addressing issues of poor attitudes to work and misconduct among healthcare workers through reforms, enforcement, and capacity-building initiatives.
The state’s Commissioner for Health, Dr Afam Obidike said that the initiatives were being implemented at public and private hospitals.
Obidike said that Gov. Chukwuma Soludo’s administration was committed to improving quality of care and ensuring accountability for human rights violations/abuses in the healthcare sector.
He identified renovation and equipping of public hospitals, as well as recruitment of more healthcare workers to alleviate staff shortages and reduce fatigue among existing staff, as some of the reforms.
The commissioner said that it also introduced installation of clock-in devices to track attendance and punctuality, suspension of salaries and disciplinary actions against negligent health workers.
“Establishment of a public complaint system via dedicated phone numbers displayed at health facilities and training on the Patients’ Bill of Rights to ensure better understanding and protection of patient rights.
“I also carry out regular unannounced visits to government hospitals to identify absentee staff and monitor their activities at the heath centres, ” he said.
The commissioner said that the government established the Anambra State Health Facilities Monitoring and Accreditation Unit (ASHAFAMU) to combat quackery and maintain health standards.
“We have shut down over 35 illegal health facilities since May 21, 2024 when ASHAFAMU was established and prosecuted operators engaging in fraudulent medical practices.
The Commissioner urged healthcare givers in the state to double their effort so as to meet the daily needs of people who were seeking for medical attention.
Earlier, Chief Emmanuel Ojukwu, President-General, Alor community said that people complained of incessant deaths due to misdiagnoses and wrong prescriptions at Bright Land Hospital, Alor in Idemili South Local Government Area.
“We reported to the Ministry of Health and they conducted a private investigation where it was discovered that the self acclaimed doctor at the hospital, Anayo Okwara, was a quack with forged medical certificates.
“He was eventually arrested and the hospital was shut. We really appreciate the state government for the prompt response to safeguard the health of our people,” he said.
Dr Chukwudi Njerita, Director of Health, Dunukofia Local Government Area, however, blamed some of the poor attitude to work and misconduct by healthcare workers on fatigue, shortage of personnel and lack of modern equipment.
“Due to shortage of health personnel, there are few doctors and nurses attending to overwhelming crowd that visit the hospital for medical attention.
“Some of these issues of negligence and misconduct happen because the health workers are over worked. But we still have a duty as health workers to prioritise the well-being of patients no matter the situation,” he said.
In his views, the Coordinator, Anambra Civil Society Network, Mr Chris Azor said negligence by healthcare workers particularly in the public sector has further endangered lives of patients.
Azor urged the state government to put monitoring mechanism in place to check the attitudes and activities of health workers to ensure optimum patient care.
Meanwhile, health experts in Enugu State have called for standardisation, supervision, training and retraining to curb abnormalities among health practitioners that worsen health complications among patients.
The health experts, who spoke in Enugu, outlined ways to remedy situations of wrong diagnosis, wrong prescription of drugs, wrong laboratory test and result as well as expired drugs among others.
The immediate past Executive Secretary of the Enugu State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Prof. George Ugwu noted that standardisation of practice in the health sector should never be compromised as that was the difference between advanced and developing countries.
“Our standard is affected by a huge gap in manpower needs in various hospitals from Primary Health Care to general hospitals which is being exploited by quacks and patent drug dealers claiming to be doctors.
“Most of our trained and competent health professionals are leaving to seek greener pastures overseas and the foreign countries have found out that it costs less to import a health practitioner than training one in their countries,” he said.
Ugwu, a consultant with the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), said that Nigerians should stop cutting corners by engaging in self medication, seeing a laboratory scientist or pharmacist before seeing a doctor in a hospital.
According to him, I have to rescue a young woman from fertility complications, who visited a patent drug dealer and the drug dealer always prescribed fibroid drugs that led to serious bleeding and other complications.
The don urged the government at all levels to prioritise training of health practitioners and constant retraining after school, adding that “physical structure and equipment are good; but a healthy facility stands out due to competent professionals.
“Senior medical practitioners and supervisors must carry out due diligence in mentoring and monitoring what other health professionals under them are doing and review what is written in medical files and physical patient condition,” he said.
Corroborating, a laboratory scientist, Mr Chuks Agudosy said that to remedy situations of wrong diagnosis, wrong lab test and result, each health facility must prioritise training and monitoring.
Agudosy said that even after intermittent training, authorities in health facilities must ensure constant supervision with due procedural diligence on how junior health workers under them performed their duties.
He said, “There is a need for supervisors to ensure that a patient is followed up thoroughly; and constant monitoring on what and how a junior health worker serving in any health facility is doing.
“If a supervisor finds out that psychologically, a health worker is not fit; that worker should be relieved of his/her duties to prevent costly mistakes and save lives.
“Apart from physical monitoring, the supervisor should check on files of each patient and see that what is administered is recommended according to what is in the file written by a qualified doctor or doctors.
“For each health facility, a consultation with a qualified medical doctor should be the first thing. The doctor should do the diagnosis; recommend laboratory tests or drugs.”
He warned that the practice where some people in the street or self-acclaimed doctors make wrong diagnosis and complicate health issues should be checked.
Sharing his professional view, the former Enugu State Director of Public Health, Dr Boniface Okoro urged health workers, particularly hospital Laboratory workers, to adhere to proper labeling of patients’ specimens to avoid wrong test results and treatment.
Okoro said, “As a lab scientist, If you get a specimen from somebody, you should label the name of the person on the specimen.
“When you put it in the machine to run the test, the name should be there so that when the person comes for the result, you just go to the paper that bears his/her name and write the test result.
“Improper labeling usually causes the issuance of wrong test results and wrong medication leading to a patient’s health complication and death at times.”
He also added that wrong prescription of drugs at times could be due to inadequate staff in the hospital pharmacy or psychological imbalance of a pharmacist.
“There should be enough staff at different points in the pharmacy section to attend to many patients as only one or two staff cannot attend to many patients at a time to avoid giving wrong drugs to patients,” he said.
NAN
