Health workers’ attitude has been causing well over 90 per cent of deaths recorded in hospitals across Nigeria.
Chief Medical Director (CMD), University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH), Thomas Agan, said this during an interaction with journalists on Tuesday in Calabar.
According to him, some health workers don’t take the lives of patients seriously, in spite of their professional training and work ethics.
“Until the healthcare givers in our hospitals begin to realise that the health of the patient he/she is handling could be his own, his wife or siblings and all that, things will not go well,” said Agan, who is also the chairman of the Committee of Chief Medical Directors of Federal Tertiary Hospitals in Nigeria,
“Until we realise that we would be held accountable to every challenge we create, things will not go down well,’’ he said.
The challenges facing the sector not withstanding, the health sector, he said, was supposed to be a place of succour, not only to the rich, but to ordinary Nigerians.
He attributed incessant strikes in the health system to disagreements and professional rivalry among the various unions, which, ultimately, takes its toll on Nigerians suffering and dying.
“ For me, welfare issues are necessary in life, but incessant welfare requests from the healthcare providers tend to undermine the sector itself.
“I feel really pained that the situation has not been adequately taken care of by both staff and the government. And each time any union declares industrial dispute, you cannot quantify the number of people that usually lost their lives.
“Our oath, for instance, says we should preserve life from conception to death. This means that the life that is entrusted into your hands must be preserved.
“I am happy that the strike by resident doctors has been suspended. I have never believed in using strike to solve problems and I will never subscribe to strike in its entirety,’’ Agan said.
The resident doctors recently ended their indefinite industrial action, But the nursing professionals started theirs Wednesday.