Re: ARN Bill for an Act to Amend the University Teaching Hospitals (Reconstitution of Boards Etc) Act CAP U15 LFN 2004


Posted on: Mon 04-07-2022

RE: BILL FOR AN ACT TO AMEND THE UNIVERSITY TEACHING HOSPITALS (RECONSTITUTION OF BOARDS ETC) ACT CAP U15 LFN 2004.

An Imperative Necessity for Health care Transformation in Nigeria

The attention of The Association of Radiographers of Nigeria has been drawn to a memo released by the Medical and Dental Consultants' Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) (MDCAN/2021-2023/PRV005) on 29th June 2022 and Association of Provosts of Colleges of Medicine in Nigeria (APCOM) which are aimed to disparage the thoughtful and well-articulated bill titled; Bill For An Act To Amend The University Teaching Hospitals (Reconstitution Of Boards) Act Cap U15 LFN 2004, which is sponsored by the ebullient Honorable Bamidele Salam representing Ede North/Ede South/Egbedore/Ejigbo Federal Constituency of Osun State.

The bill, which is an altruistic bid to reform the Nigerian health sector starting from the apex hospitals; the university teaching hospitals has been long overdue. The Nigerian health sector has for long operated below the standards and at variance with global best practice majorly due to the overbearing selfishness of a section of the healthcare workforce. They have always usurped leadership and administration of these tertiary hospitals with no recourse to quality administration and management.

The write- up by MDCAN which alludes to the opinion that only physicians can lead tertiary hospitals in Nigerian and that physician-led hospitals are better is false. The assertions reek of the usual sanctimonious bid to perpetuate the existing inefficient and ineffective system which favors only one section of the healthcare workforce, with the physicians being the Chief Medical Directors or Provost of the Colleges of Medical Sciences and has proven to have delivered poorly in all indices of hospital management. It is worthy to note that this current practice has impacted negatively all indices of quality Health Care and hospital management.

We make bold to say that the reason the Nigerian health sector is at its moribund state is because of the entrenched poor leadership that has been provided by the physicians all through these years. It is time to do things the right way. It is time for real health administrators to be appointed to these offices in order to turn things around.

In the said write-up, MDCAN stated inter alia that 'world over... physician led hospitals are better managed with measurable advancements in all sectors' This is not only a fallacy but an erroneous submission targeted at misleading the entire public and policy makers. To put the records straight, the best hospitals in the world are not necessarily managed by physicians but by seasoned health administrators who have obtained higher degrees in management and administration with cognate experience, even if they have a background as part of any professions in the healthcare work force. Possession of a degree in any healthcare profession is only considered as an added advantage.

In an even more sinister write-up, APCOM alluded to notions that the position of the Chief Executive Officer is an exclusive preserve of medical physicians. This is obnoxious, derogatory and Misleading. The assertion is self-serving and unheard of in saner climes and should not be tolerated in a healthcare sector with APCOM itself has described as ‘frail and desperately sick’.

We therefore, wish to clarify that other health professions, equally, if not on a much larger scale, are well grounded by their extensive training to manage hospitals and any other facilities. Health professionals such as Radiographers, Pharmacists, Medical Laboratory Scientists, Nurses, Physiotherapists and Optometrists among others have gone ahead to obtain requisite higher degrees in Hospital or Healthcare administration and management, thereby making them even more eminently qualified to hold such positions in hospitals.

APCOM, also stated inter alia, that 'a medical doctor... has not only been thoroughly trained in Medicine and surgery but also in Pharmacy, nursing, laboratory science, physiotherapy, etc.' A Statement such as this, is not only false, but evidence of arrogance and know-it-all-attitude of most Physicians in Nigeria. They act as impostors in our healthcare system, arrogating to themselves absolute knowledge that have done more harm than good to the Nigerian health sector.

We hereby call on all policy makers, national assembly members and indeed the entire public to ignore completely these tantrums being thrown by these same individuals who have succeeded in mismanaging our federal health institutions for years, leaving the Nigerian health sector in a decrepit and deplorable state. They simply want a maintenance of status quo, enabling them to perpetuate maladministration of our hallowed health institutions to the detriment of the Nigerian populace

We commend the conscientious efforts of Honorable Bamidele Salam, and the National assembly for their assiduous efforts to uphold and bring transformation in the Nigerian health institutions.

We urge them to stick to the global best practices where Hospital Administrators are in charge of hospitals while all the different health professionals are hired to carry our their specific responsibilities as required by the facility. This hill should therefore be given judicious and express passage as an elixir to the suffocating ‘political patronage’ that has become of Hospital administration in our clime. This has totally derailed efficient and quality professional services due to over-protectionism of professional colleagues among physicians.

Thank you.

Signed:

Dr. Dlama Zira Joseph (PhD, MSc, MHM, B.Rad., MARN)

President

Dr. Samuel Shem (PhD, MSc, MARN)

National Secretary