At 60, Nigeria’s health sector still primitive -MDCAN

The Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria says the country’s health sector is still primitive, considering that people pay out of pocket when accessing health care.

He added that the sector is nothing to write home about as Nigeria marks its 60th Independence anniversary.

President of MDCAN, Prof. Kenneth Ozoilo, who spoke in an interview with PUNCH HealthWise, noted that the nation’s health system is poor.

“The health system itself is very poor because any health system in which a patient has to remove money from his pocket to pay for healthcare is primitive.

“The health system is even poor in terms of infrastructure. A lot of our hospitals were built several years ago. The University College Hospital, Ibadan, was built before independence yet there is no upgrade of those infrastructures.

“In China, they build a 1,000-bed capacity in one week in response to COVID-19.

“But if you look at the manpower, Nigeria has some of the best manpower in the world. We are in high demand all over the world and I’m not talking about only doctors.

“Any nurse in the country that writes an application to Europe or America gets automatic employment and the same goes for other categories of health workers.

So, this is to tell you that the problem is not the people, but the system is insufficient and it has not encouraged that positivity to manifest,” Ozoilo said.

He urged the government to learn from the COVID-19 experience and invest in the health sector.

“We have got rid of polio, but Lassa fever is still around. COVID-19 figures are going down in the country and it is not because of what we did or how fantastic the health sector is, but it is despite the fact that we have a weak health sector.

“At 60, Nigeria’s health sector is nothing to write home about,” he said.

Ozoilo added that “The crisis of COVID-19 should have given us an opportunity to fix our healthcare system but it is still where it is.

“That means that if another pandemic comes, we will start from the scratch because we have not invested in the infrastructure, equipment, or personnel funding.

“We have learnt nothing from the outbreak,” he said.

Reacting to the statement of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) about how Nigerians in the Diaspora excel in science and medicine, Ozoilo said Buhari should ask himself why Nigerians are not excelling in the country.

“This tells you that the problem is not with Nigerians but with the leadership.

“Nigerians excel in other places because somebody had created the ambience for these people to excel. So, the President should ask himself what he is doing differently from what others have done.

“The people are hardworking, but the atmosphere is not there because of the leadership,” Ozoilo said.