http://www.africanloft.com/clinical-hotel-for-the-rich/ News, Commentary & Social Media from African Perspective Sun, 14 Mar 2010 16:53:16 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 http://www.africanloft.com/clinical-hotel-for-the-rich/comment-page-1/#comment-44364 Misi Coker Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:18:54 +0000 http://www.africanloft.com/?p=3247#comment-44364 I think it will take a lot more than aesthetics for the Nigerian medical standard to be at par with the medical treatment received abroad. For starters, the private rooms and uninterrupted power supply is not a new factor in hospitals such as St. Nicholas Hospital and the likes in Nigeria, neither are expert physicians being flown in from all over the world to carry out procedures whenever needed a solution. The problem with the Nigerian medical sector is more deeply rooted than the cosmetics overhaul done by UCH. The fundamental problem with hospitals start from the universities. Most of our medical schools are ill-equipped, the technology is obsolete and the professors etc are still applying their 1960s knowledge and techniques to the dynamic medical world. All those factors plus bad salaries, create unmotivated doctors who after graduation opt for practice in other countries where they will be better compensated and educated. This translates to us loosing great brains by the dozen to the different hospitals/clinics all over the world. The solution would be to give these doctors better salary and an incentive to return home to practice what they have learned abroad, hospitals to plug into the medical technology world and upgrade their equipment as needed and also to provide continuous and updated training to all their medical personnel. Finally, most hospitals need to realize that not all of have them have the capacity or ability to provide in-patient care and thus would better serve the community if they restricted their practice to outpatient care. I think it will take a lot more than aesthetics for the Nigerian medical standard to be at par with the medical treatment received abroad. For starters, the private rooms and uninterrupted power supply is not a new factor in hospitals such as St. Nicholas Hospital and the likes in Nigeria, neither are expert physicians being flown in from all over the world to carry out procedures whenever needed a solution. The problem with the Nigerian medical sector is more deeply rooted than the cosmetics overhaul done by UCH. The fundamental problem with hospitals start from the universities. Most of our medical schools are ill-equipped, the technology is obsolete and the professors etc are still applying their 1960s knowledge and techniques to the dynamic medical world. All those factors plus bad salaries, create unmotivated doctors who after graduation opt for practice in other countries where they will be better compensated and educated. This translates to us loosing great brains by the dozen to the different hospitals/clinics all over the world. The solution would be to give these doctors better salary and an incentive to return home to practice what they have learned abroad, hospitals to plug into the medical technology world and upgrade their equipment as needed and also to provide continuous and updated training to all their medical personnel. Finally, most hospitals need to realize that not all of have them have the capacity or ability to provide in-patient care and thus would better serve the community if they restricted their practice to outpatient care.

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