Many Imo and Abia communities, concerned about the threats to the country’s effective healthcare service, have urged for strict government steps to address the problem.
People were interviewed at Owerri and Umuahia by the News Agency of Nigeria(NAN)
They stated that the frequency of expired and adulterated drugs, incorrect laboratory test findings, antiquated equipment, and incorrect diagnoses and prescriptions by medical staff all represent significant barriers to access to effective healthcare services.
In Owerri, Imo’s capital, a pharmacist, Mr Joseph Ezeh, encouraged the government and regulatory bodies to increase efforts to combat the activities of quacks in the industry.
Ezeh stated that the majority of incorrect diagnoses and prescriptions could be traced back to the actions of non-professionals, namely patent medicine salesmen “who deceive gullible patients.”
He advocated for the implementation of appropriate measures to checkmate quackery and its repercussions in the healthcare system.
Mr Peter Nseabasi, the former Chairman of the Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN), has urged for increased investment in the health industry, particularly in terms of equipment, personnel welfare, and retraining.
Nseabasi stated that more investment in the industry will assist in solving the challenges of incorrect diagnoses and their implications.
Onyinyechi Ifeanyi, a nursing student, stated that some medical professionals transfer many tasks to student physicians and nurses, placing patients at the mercy of trainees.
Ifeanyi advocated for improved incentives and benefits for health workers to attract more experts to the field.
She said it would promote division of work and increase efficiency.
However, a medical doctor at the Federal Medical Centre in Owerri blamed the healthcare crisis on years of neglect by successive governments.
The doctor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, stated that the rot has led to a loss of passion for the profession among physicians, nurses, and other health workers.
He stated that the inadequate compensation for health staff, as well as the country’s economic situation has had a negative impact on the attitude of health workers towards their Job.
According to him, many doctors at FMC have their own private hospitals or clinics where they consult outside their main job.
According to him, the change caused some doctors to get distracted and in some cases make mistakes in their hurry to move to their next job.
“Patients are occasionally directed to private clinics, where they are presented with outrageous bills,” the medical practitioner said.
He said that “patients frequently failed to make formal complaints to the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria about their ugly experiences in hospitals,” which is why the issue has continued.
Nwakego Ndu, a civil servant described how her doctor informed her that she had “bilateral tumours” on both ovaries and scheduled her for surgery right away.
When I went to my doctor to complain of sudden, intense discomfort around my waist, he discovered that I had tumours on both of my ovaries. His eagerness suggested that I would die if I didn’t undergo the operation right away, even though he didn’t tell me it was cancer.
According to Ndu, “my family insisted that I get a second opinion, and it turned out that I had fibroid and not tumour.”
She said that her faith in the medical community was damaged by the encounter.
People have the right to challenge their diagnosis and get a second opinion, and I want them to know that.
According to her, “it could mean the difference between life and death.”
Also, Mrs. Ifunanya Eze, an oncology patient, said that she was instructed to undergo “water therapy” for two weeks when she initially appeared with her symptoms, which included black urine and white faeces.
She claims that painkillers and muscle relaxants were also provided to her without any testing to identify the cause of her constant pain.
“After criticizing me for researching my symptoms on Google, my doctor reluctantly sent me for a scan when I started to get jaundiced. “His initial response to my pancreatic cancer diagnosis was to schedule surgery for me at his clinic.
She said, “But my current doctors told me that if I had gone ahead with the surgery, I would have died.”
The State Primary Healthcare Development Agency’s Executive Secretary, Dr. Kalu Kalu, stated in Abia that the government has taken strong action to stop incorrect diagnoses at the state’s Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs).
According to Kalu, the actions being taken would focus on enhancing PHC service delivery and medical accuracy.
He said that addressing infrastructure issues, equipment and manpower concerns as well as taking a comprehensive approach might address the issue of incorrect diagnoses.
Continuous training and retraining of medical staff, he added, are essential in ensuring proper patient history taking, precise diagnoses, and correct investigations.
Health professionals should receive frequent training to improve their abilities and stay current on best practices, according to Kalu.
He said that ongoing training of medical personnel was covered by Abia’s 2025 budget, a process that started last year with a number of frontline health worker capacity-building initiatives.
To bolster the workforce in hospitals and PHCs, he further disclosed that the Abia government approved the recruitment of more medical personnel.
To improve service delivery, he stated that the government was rebuilding health facilities in the 17 LGAs and would be furnishing them with cutting-edge medical equipment.
Besides constructing health facilities, the government is working to give them with the resources they need to deliver high-quality medical treatment.
“We are dedicated to making sure that Abia residents can easily access high-quality healthcare.”
“This is in line with the vision of Gov Alex Otti to improve the state’s healthcare system,” he said.
Kalu also stated that the government’s comprehensive plan will drastically reduce the number of misdiagnoses, enhance patient treatment results, and boost the state’s entire healthcare sector.
Dr Emeka Orji, a former President of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors, warned that if healthcare training, facilities, and manpower are not urgently improved, the growing number of incorrect diagnoses will increase.
Orji, a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, stated that inadequate history-taking, bad diagnostic equipment, incorrect test findings, and overworked medical professionals are still important causes of misdiagnosis.
He said the enormous pressure faced by doctors due to the significant dearth of medical workers in Nigeria needs to be addressed.
According to Orji, Nigeria has a shocking doctor-to-patient ratio of 1:10,000, which is far lower than the WHO’s recommended ratio of 1:600,000.
Errors are unavoidable when a doctor who should treat 600 patients treats 10,000.
“This workload greatly contributes to incorrect diagnoses, along with inadequate training and unfavourable working conditions,” he stated.
He also took issue with the Federal Government’s recent order for medical schools to double their student intake without increasing infrastructure and faculty.
Orji stated that this might lead to medical colleges producing poor trained doctors, resulting in a rise in medical mistakes.
He also emphasized the importance of increased quality control in laboratories to ensure reliable test findings.
He stated that expired or poor-quality chemicals, defective machinery, and a lack of stringent supervision frequently result in incorrect lab findings.
He stated, “This trend has caused many clinicians to depend on clinical judgment rather than test results.
“That is why tertiary hospitals insist on conducting tests in their own labs, since they do not fully trust external facilities.”
Orji urged on the government to take immediate action to curb brain drain in the medical industry, enhance healthcare facilities, and impose quality control in medical diagnostics.
Mrs Obunwa Ulonna, a mother of three, also admitted to receiving an incorrect diagnosis when she delivered her first child.
Ulonna asked all levels of government to take urgent action to reduce medical mistakes and protect people’ health.
Mrs. Ugochi Chukwuneke, a Laboratory Scientist, stated that using care during a patient’s clinical examination and diagnosis might reduce certain incidences of misdiagnosis in the nation’s health sector.
Chukwuneke of the Miraculous Medical Laboratories in Umuahia acknowledged that there are frequently instances in which certain medical staff members may lose the clinical test findings of certain patients.
She claims that to prevent such mistakes when patients come to their lab, they make sure their names are inscribed on specimen collection bottles before sample collection.
“Everything you do inside is pointless if you switch their names at the reception because you are likely to give the patient the wrong result,” she stated.
Chukwuneke, who talked about her experiences, said that other factors might lead to an incorrect diagnosis.
“I had tested a man who was screened as HIV positive somewhere, but I ran a similar test and found he was negative,” she added.
“Because other conditions like hypertitis or tuberculosis could interfere and cause a false positive HIV result, I asked him to go to Federal Medical Centre for a confirmatory test. “After completing the confirmatory test, he was finally content.
Mrs. Ojingwa Anya, a laboratory technician and microbiologist from Umuahia, also voiced her worry about the rot in the healthcare industry, claiming that it has had a devastating impact on society.
To preserve lives, Anya, who was dismayed by the threat of expired medications and other carelessness in the industry, encouraged the regulatory bodies to step up their efforts to combat the unhealthy practices.
“To prevent sending people to an early grave, we in the healthcare sector need to be extremely careful in everything we do. “She stated that new medical graduates must receive appropriate guidance and tutoring from older and experienced ones.
Source: (News Agency of Nigeria)
