HOW HOSPITABLE ARE OUR HOSPITALS?

BY:
ELEKWACHI CHINEDUM


The Webster Dictionary defines hospital as an institution equipped and staffed to provide medical, surgical and sometimes psychiatric care for the sick and injured. BUT a visit to many hospitals in the country, whether public or private, will reveal THEIR BAD STATE, with grossly limited manpower and facilities. Even worse is the character and attitude of the medical personnel which are far from being hospitable and friendly as expected. The reasons for the sorry state of these hospitals are not far fetched. Right from the point of admission into Colleges of Medicine, the processes are faulty.



Studying Medicine and Surgery as a discipline in any Nigerian University has been commercialized that once you can afford the price fixed by that institution, you are already a potential medical doctor. The story is not different during recruitment. The EMPLOYMENT PROCESS FOR MANY medical personnel whose jobs are so sensitive and delicate HAS BEEN CORRUPTED that emphasis is no longer placed on merit but on sentiments. Though many of them parade intimidating certificates, only very few can defend these certificates. Beside academic qualifications, the character of SOME medical personnel on whose shoulders the lives of people rests leaves much to be desired. This is in spite of the fact that the certificate a graduate goes home with at the end of his or her studies is awarded on two major grounds – character and learning. But THIS IS more theoretical than practical, these days. The degree of hostility displayed by these medical personnel, particularly the auxiliary nurses IS so high that some patients, who could have survived, end up dying in their hands.


Does it mean that these doctors AND NURSES who are hostile when attending to their helpless patients were not taught the ethics of their profession? These are issues that call for concern. FROM THEIR UNBECOMING ATTITUDES, IT IS CLEAR THAT THEY DO NOT BELONG TO SUCH A NOBLE PROFESSION. IT WILL APPEAR THAT THEY WERE PUSHED INTO IT BY EITHER THEIR PARENTS OR GUARDIANS OR SOME OTHER CONSIDERATIONS. THE MEDICAL profession is supposed to be more of a calling than business. Again, many venture into it primarily for financial gains. Although hospitals should not be run as charitable organisations, at the same time, profit making should not be the primary reason for establishing them. Cases abound of doctors who establish PRIVATE hospitals WHILE STILL WORKING IN PUBLIC HOSPITALS AND NOT ABLE TO CONCENTRATE FULLY ON EITHER. Apart from the human personnel, the structures and the equipment in most of our hospitals leaves much to be desired. Untidy environment, with BAD odour, congested WARDS that are mosquito infested are often the order of the day. This condition is certainly not acceptable.
THERE IS A NEED TO HOLISTICALLY IMPROVE the conditions of our hospitals THROUGH addressing these challenges. Fundamentally, the process of admitting students into any medicine related discipline must be restructured urgently. Emphasis should be on merit. A ONE time University Vice Chancellor was reported to have asked her daughter STUDY Biochemistry instead of Medicine and Surgery which she had applied for, because she did not MAKE THE GRADE. Parents MUST study and observe their children early enough in order to discover their gifts and potential so as to encourage them to develop them along that line. It is also expedient to include the basic ethics of the profession in the departmental curriculum, and make it compulsory for anyone who wants to practice. A study of the records of all medical graduates is necessary during recruitment exercise in order to fish out those with violent and inhuman tendencies. This will check to a large extent the hostile attitudes of some medical personnel who are supposed to put up a friendly behaviour at work.

Government at all levels should inject more funds into public hospitals to enable them recruit more staff to take care of the teeming sick ones and to procure more drugs and other facilities to replace the obsolete ones. Besides, regular routine checks should BE carried out on both public and private hospitals in order to ensure clean and conducive environment that is not only healthy, but friendly.



Source:recorded live from FRCN daily commentary