Doctors Versus Patients: How To Resolve The Recurring Brawls
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Loading... - Precious Ekajeh
- 16 Feb 2023
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“Nothing seems to work in Nigeria,” yelled Chutobi, while pacing the emergency department walkway. “These doctors are extremely unsympathetic to patients and their relatives. Health professionals need to be accountable and if they are not ready to do their jobs, they should simply quit, and alternatives be sought! This is human life we are talking about.”
This is the complaint on twitter, in malpractice suits or repeated by relatives who assault health care givers. What causes this loss of faith by the general populace in people who should be ‘God-sent’? How can this problem be solved? Can sanity, respect of persons and professionalism be returned to the wards of hospitals? I believe so. And a good understanding by both parties may really help.
The list of concerns by those who seek health care services is long. It includes unsympathetic doctors and health care practitioners (including those who ask for deposits before they can attend to dying people), delays in getting appropriate care and unavailability of world standard care among others.
Health professionals also complain of the huge burden of work without commensurate benefits, unavailability of modern equipment to give standard care, and unrealistic expectations of patients and caregivers who often come to the hospitals late (frequently with complications and having exhausted funds elsewhere) and expect the miraculous.
An attempt to write on each problem will be too tedious to read. I am simply going to state some solutions, which I feel, will have the highest impact on the reduction of acrimony between the populace and their caregivers. The first set of recommendations is for the general public. Everyone needs to understand that healthcare is always expensive, and you should be prepared to pay for it. While health insurance is the best model for financing health care, no one should consider it a curse or a waste of his resources when it is spent on one’s health. Readiness (insurance, health emergency savings and family support) to fund health emergencies will ensure people get to hospitals earlier, without complications and are less inclined to be aggressive when a treatment plan is outlined. Read More…
