Elections are over and we now have a new president of Nigeria. Although, some of us may not have supported him ab initio, not because we hate him but because we believed that age was no longer on his side. However, having emerged as president, we're left with no choice than accept his emergence as an act of divine Providence. So, a big CONGRATULATIONS to Mr President, Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR ( The Jagaban of Nigeria, not only that of Borgu).

Now, to the gist of this write up. I want to use this space to bring to fore some of the issues that have hindered our quest for a robust and competitive healthcare system in this country. It is no longer news that members of the joint health sector unions have been on an indefinite strike since the past two weeks and this has paralyzed activities in our public heathcare institutions. This is regrettable but well justified.

The members of JOHESU which is an umbrella body of healthcare professionals' unions in our public heathcare institutions are demanding among other things:

1. Payment of the arrears of the adjusted consolidated healthcare salary scheme (CONHESS) which has been due for years

2. Payment of withheld salaries of their members in some public hospitals

3. Increment of retirement age of these professionals from the current 60years to 65years

4. Immediate implementation of the FG approved consultancy cadre for Pharmacists and proper placement of Pharmacists who have acquired the Pharm.D degrees to grade level 12 in our public heathcare institutions

Now, looking at the above demands, any unbiased person will agree with me that they are legitimate and when implemented would add great values to our healthcare system.

These issues have been on the front burner for so long and would have been addressed but for the INSECURITY and egocentric nature of the Nigerian physician doctors who have chosen to turn our public heathcare institutions to their private estates to the disadvantage of the health-seeking Nigerian masses.

For the sake of clarity, let me throw a bit more light on some the above demands.

On the issue of salary arrears:

There are two salary schemes in our public heathcare institutions ie CONMESS for physicians and CONHESS for other healthcare professionals. Since inception of these schemes, CONMESS has been reviewed upwards for 4 times while CONHESS has remained stagnant ever since. The result is that these heathcare professionals who spent several years in school studying so hard ( more than their medical students friends in some cases like in Pharmacy) are being paid peanuts not even enough for transportation.

On retirement age:

Considering the braindrain in our healthcare system and the tedious nature of training new healthcare professionals, it is very important that the older and more experienced hands among these professionals are retained in the system for up to even age 70 in order to train and mentor the younger ones.

On the issue of consultancy in Pharmacy and proper placement of Pharm.D graduates:

It is unfortunate that our physician friends only talk about INTERNATIONAL BEST PRACTICES in healthcare delivery when it suits their selfish demands, but fail to apply same holistically. In most countries of the world today, the minimum qualification to be licensed as a pharmacist is the Pharm.D and senior Pharmacists are being promoted to consultancy cadre after undergoing rigorous residency trainings. Why should ours be different despite our abysmally low life expectancy??

The goal of the Pharm.D program is NOT to take over the roles of the physicians like some insecure physicians think. Rather it is to train more clinically oriented Pharmacists who will not only make the drugs but will also have better understanding of diseases so they can assist the physicians in identifying health problems that occur during treatments with drugs.

It has been found that during the course of treatment with drugs, alot of problems could arise leading to treatment failures, prolonged hospital stay, increased cost of treatment, injury and permanent disability to the patient or outright death.

Hence, the roles of the pharmacist now encompass pinpointing these problems and calling the attention of the treating physician to them in a professional manner. THE PATIENT is the one who benefits immensely from this.

Now, since the Nigerian physicians -- through their colleagues who head most of our health institutions, have constituted themselves as clogs in the wheels of progress of our healthcare system, it is high time the government took bold steps to improve the fortunes of our healthcare system. The new administration of president Tinubu must endeavor to do things differently this time and not toe same line as his predecessors who ignorantly or wilfully lent themselves as tools of oppression and destruction of our healthcare system while ironically pouring funds into a disarrayed system.

The president must first OVERHAUL the leadership of our health system, starting from the ministry of health down to the lowest leadership hierarchy. Seasoned and unbiased ADMINISTRATORS should be appointed ministers of health. Non healthcare practioners such as Accountants, Lawyers and others who also possess post graduate qualifications in administration should be appointed into headship of our health institutions while the different professional groups should have DIRECTORS who are answerable to the MANAGERS.

These DIRECTORS would now
liaise with the MANAGERS when the need arises. This arrangement would not only greatly improve healthcare delivery but would entrench industrial harmony in our healthcare system. The different healthcare professionals would be on their toes to outperform the others, hence a more robust and productive healthcare system would be achieved.

The only way he can reform it is if he himself receives treatment in it instead of going abroad.

Too long to read but I must commend you for the first paragraph, if we are all like this, no one will hate anyone.


God bless Nigeria.

Chloraseptic:
The only way he can reform it is if he himself receives treatment in it instead of going abroad.

He can still reform it even if he would receive treatments abroad. All he needs is the political will to make such changes and stick to it.

Reform our public heathcare system.

The only way any of these "nice to haves" will ever be realized is by freeing up some of the money currently being soaked up by servicing debts on foreign loans. One of the measures required to do that is the eradication of the petrol subsidy, which a great many Nigerians seem to value far more than they do a working healthcare system ...

He should not go and copy Peter Obi's idea again like he has done with the removal of petrol subsidy.

omohayek:
The only way any of these "nice to haves" will ever be realized is by freeing up some of the money currently being soaked up by servicing debts on foreign loans. One of the measures required to do that is the eradication of the petrol subsidy, which a great many Nigerians seem to value far more than they do a working healthcare system ...

Removal of fuel subsidy is a welcome development. However, measures should be put in place to cution the effects. Example of such measures include strict regulation of fuel price and meting out severe punishment to those involved in hoarding of petroleum products and selling above stipulated price

Someone that would soon travel out of Nigeria for medical treatment

Jman06:
Removal of fuel subsidy is a welcome development. However, measures should be put in place to cution the effects. Example of such measures include strict regulation of fuel price and meting out severe punishment to those involved in hoarding of petroleum products and selling above stipulated price

The "measures" you suggest would actually create shortages, so I hope for all our sakes that they never come close to being implemented. What you are advocating is a prescription for turning Nigeria into another Venezuela, oil "rich" yet a basket case according to any reasonable criterion.

You, like a great many Nigerians, seem to think that there must be some clever way for us all to get something for nothing, if only the "right" laws can be passed. Sadly, that just isn't how markets work.

omohayek:
The only way any of these "nice to haves" will ever be realized is by freeing up some of the money currently being soaked up by servicing debts on foreign loans. One of the measures required to do that is the eradication of the petrol subsidy, which a great many Nigerians seem to value far more than they do a working healthcare system ...

You make it sound like petrol subsidy is the only thing that can be used to fix the healthcare challenges of Nigeria. What about the funds being looted right, left, centre and for ages?
Removing petrol subsidy is all about dodging the hard way of responsibly managing our finances by the Tinubu govt. Nobody wants to man up to the big boys of corruption and so they focus on subsidy. How much is our security budget for the past 8 years? Not so far from the subsidy figure but everyone up there in power seem to only notice how petrol subsidy isn't working and not the extremely pathetic performance in security area.

As for loans conditions that made petrol subsidy removal inevitable, when loans aren't used productively but as part of recurrent consumption, the repayment mess we are in is the end product. Nobody seem to be noticing how the expensive rail project cannot repay 10% of the cost, but quick to notice subsidy with a far better scorecard. If the rail systems were efficiently done and cost effectively, it could have been available to reduce the subsidy removal burden about to hit us hard.

CodeTemplar:
You make it sound like petrol subsidy is the only thing that can be used to fix the healthcare challenges of Nigeria. What about the funds being looted right, left, centre and for ages?
Removing petrol subsidy is all about dodging the hard way of responsibly managing our finances by the Tinubu govt. Nobody wants to man up to the big boys of corruption and so they focus on subsidy. How much is our security budget for the past 8 years? Not so far from the subsidy figure but everyone up there in power seem to only notice how petrol subsidy isn't working and not the extremely pathetic performance in security area.

As for loans conditions that made petrol subsidy removal inevitable, when loans aren't used productively but as part of recurrent consumption, the repayment mess we are in is the end product. Nobody seem to be noticing how the expensive rail project cannot repay 10% of the cost, but quick to notice subsidy with a far better scorecard. If the rail systems were efficiently done and cost effectively, it could have been available to reduce the subsidy removal burden about to hit us hard.

You're very correct brother