Hospital Emergency Units And Healthcare Services In Nigeria

Written By

Chikezie Chinkata FRCN Abuja Operations

Generally the common understanding of the purpose and function of any hospital or healthcare institution is to provide services towards enhancing a healthy life.

Hospitals are to provide services and facilities that will help check, prevent or remedy situations that are life threatening, situations that may also result to death if appropriate measures are not taken.

To this end,if a patient who is in critical condition is successfully moved to a hospital, the belief is that there is hope for survival all things being equal,by the grace of God.

But a situation where such patient is abandoned due to bureaucratic procedures instead of giving him or her immediate attention is painful.

In line with the ideal expectation of the common man from the hospital, life first, while other details including documentations come later.

If what comes first is the life of the patient, unnecessary records keeping that could affect chances of immediate attention for the survival of the person should be treated as secondary.

Also Read: Restoring The Dignity Of The Girl Child

This situation also desperately seeks the answer to the question of the essence of the Emergency Units, when patients are abandoned at the Emergency Departments, of some hospitals in the country until all records and rules of the hospitals are fulfilled before treatment is commenced on the patient, such situations in many occasions have resulted to unpleasant conditions including death.

Very worrisome in this situation is that in most cases the reasons for these delays are mainly lust for money and other material gains not necessarily to comply with some legal requirements for instance, if the person is a suspect.

It is quite pitiable that someone who run to the hospital for mercy is treated or handled mercilessly, due to some administrative issues.

It is also worrisome that this bottlenecks at some hospital Emergency Units,contradicts basic medical ethics all geared towards achieving effective healthcare services.

According to the American College of Emergency Physicians, warning signs of emergency include, bleeding that will not stop, breathing problems and changes in mental behaviour among other symptoms but one doubts whether patients with such symptoms are given the necessary attentions at the emergency units in some of the hospitals in the country.

A medical emergency in professional terms is a sudden injury or serious illness that if not treated right away, could cause death or serious harm to the person.

These developments regarded as emergency most times in some hospitals are not treated with the needed promptness because of laid down protocols which definitely run contrary to medical practice ethics.

These ethics include; doing good at all times in your relationship with the patient, ensuring not to do no harm, giving the patient the freedom to choose freely, where they are able and maintain fairness while discharging his or her duties.

All said and done, attitudes of some medical professionals to patients in some hospitals are very unwell coming and in all honesty and not suppose to be so, whether the situation is emergency or not.

This situation is not peculiar to private or public hospitals, as the ugly developments are found in the two sides since the causative factors can affect anyone no matter the sector the person is practising.

Sometimes, it not really correct to agree with the fact that most hospitals lacked the basic human and material resources that resulted to lack of proper attention to patients but carefree attitude to professional ethics also had hampered service delivery in the hospitals.

To this effect, there is need for a holistic reappraisal of practices and services in the nation’s hospitals to reflect the real purpose for the establishment of the hospitals especially in rural areas.

A legal framework to expand the operations of pharmaceutical practices should be looked into by the Legislative Arm of the government to permit and encourage pharmacists and other qualified officers in the pharmaceutical departments to attend to emergency situations. Also,on broad terms, patent medicine dealers should be permitted to handlel all emergency situations, except on highly professional grounds especially when hospitals turn their backs to the plea of dying patients due to protocols, bureaucracy and other associated challenges.

Towards supporting the efforts of government in the provision of basic health care, Philanthropists and well meaning individuals should look towards donating to emergency units of both private and public hospitals to help many patients who may be neglected at Emergency units due to lack of funds.

Generally, all are required to join hands towards promoting and supporting every programme that will guarantee enhanced service delivery in the nation’s health sector, for it is said that” A healthy nation is a wealthy nation”.

Edited By Grace Namijii