NANFeatures/Vol.12/No.72/2018 (May 24)
Queues as impediments to treatment in hospitals
News Analysis by Felicia Imohimi, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
Unarguably, patients who wait in line in the hospitals to see consultants in various public hospitals experience painful moments, especially those with life-threatening ailments.
Some of them, who might not be able to withstand long queues, would either resort to visiting private hospitals if they can afford the bill or engage the quacks, traditional healers inclusive.
Traditionally, accessing medical care ought to have been as prompt as possible to guard against further deterioration in health status of a patient and reduce mortality rate.
But observers note that in some public hospitals across the country, a lot of women who are accessing the ante-natal clinics usually get there as early as 4 a.m., believing that doctors ought to be available at all times in the hospitals.
Patients waiting in one of the hospitals (photo: Montage Africa)
They join the queues to collect numbers to enable them see the doctor but many of them, often times, end up not seeing the doctor.
Concerned citizens note that this development is enough to heighten the rate of maternal, neonatal mortality in the country.
For instance, a pregnant woman, Mrs Abosede Lobukeme, said she lost her first pregnancy as a result of hospital long queues.
She explained that she left her house as early as 5 a.m. so that she could receive prompt attention; unfortunately she started feeling severe pains in her lower abdomen and could not see the doctor.
She said she became weak in the following day to the extent that she could not push to be delivered of the baby until a surgery was carried out on her in which the baby died.
“So, in my second pregnancy, I patronised traditional birth attendant from inception; although people condemn it, I was delivered of my baby without stress and queue,’’ she said.
Perspective observers have, on many occasions, called the attention of the stakeholders in health sector to some challenges, including long queue in hospitals, infrastructure decay and the perceived nonchalant attitude of health workers, among others.
According to them, these challenges have been impediments to quality and timely access to medical care, resulting in preventable deaths among Nigerians.
In view of these challenges, the Society for Family Physicians of Nigeria (SOFPON) has decided to inaugurate a mobile web application — “Kompletecare’’ — to check the long waiting in hospitals.
Dr Oluwagbenga Ogunfowokan, Chairman of SOFPON, Abuja Chapter, observed that the Nigerian family physicians ought to make sure that health of the populace should improve.
“Kompletecare can be used by patients all over the world to have access to doctors anytime and anywhere.
“This mobile web application solution will reduce to the barest minimum the time patients wait in our clinics and will allow patients to be able to have remote access to doctors by using video and audio online consultations.
“Through this medium, some patients that may need home-best care will be able to access doctors to give them the desired home best care,’’ he said.
Ogunfowokan assured the public that SOFPON would provide initiatives to achieve better healthcare of patients by improving access to doctors, reducing the waiting time in clinics and providing home-base care when necessary.
“Family physicians initiative is aimed at improving internally generated revenue of our hospitals thereby providing patients satisfaction, satisfaction to doctors and satisfaction to hospitals.
“We are leading the way in the sense that for the first time we are providing a mobile application that patients can now use phones, ipad, tablets or computer anywhere they are to book appointment without having to queue for a long time.
“Once they book appointment as soon as they get to the hospital, they will see the doctor directly but if they have minor conditions that do not warrant going to hospital, the patient can actually speak with the doctor who will then advise him on what to do.
“We also lead the way by helping those patients that need home-care so that they will be able to have satisfied and quality health care.
“Nigerians should visit www.kompletecare.com and discover that SOFPON has actually provided the means in which they can now have optimum healthcare and improved access to healthcare to reduce waiting time in hospitals,’’ he said.
But a patient in one of the public hospitals in Abuja observed that time wasting in queues in hospitals was just part of the patients’ challenges.
“In Nigeria, even when your condition is critical, you will find it difficult to have access to doctor because attitudes of some medical personnel could even put the patients off.
“Health workers are supposed to be friendly with patients to address both their psychological and health challenge,’’ he observed.
He noted that attitudes of healthcare provider could either quicken patients’ death or help in fast-tracking their healing process, soliciting the engagement of family physicians who are traditionally devoted to comprehensive healthcare for people of all ages.
It is in recognition of the roles of family doctors in achieving unhindered access to healthcare that World Family Doctors Day is observed on every May 19.
The day, declared by the World Organisation of Family Doctors in 2010, features the roles and contributions of family doctors in healthcare systems around the world.(NANFeatures)
**If used, please credit the writer as well as News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)