Some JOHESU members are shouting that the posts of chief medical directors should be open,who told them it is not open in the first place?It has been open since inception and it cannot get closed this time and to capture the position is simple,pick up a  JAMB UTME form,fill medicine and surgery,finish the course with MBBS certificate registrable with Medical and Dental Council Of Nigeria. Thereafter,become a house officer after which you proceed to NYSC if age is still on your side,then come back and write your primaries professional examination in the area of medicine you want to specialize on, then start the residency programme and if you succeed in the two professional examinations in the residency programme then you become a fellow of the postgraduate medical college. The person is now a consultant in a particular area of medicine .

 

As a consultant,the person can vie for the office of the chief medical director of the hospital ,is the process not open to the members of the public who are ready to pass through this path?

       

If you want to become something in life,you must follow the due process .The current director general of World Health Organisation ,Dr Margaret Chan,wanted to  be in her current post and when she realised that the post was and is still an   exclusive preserve of medical doctors ,she simply applied to study medicine despite the fact that she had had a degree in Home Economics and for the fact that she was already practising as a Home Economics teacher .In my class we had many people that were studying medicine either as second or third degrees. The most annoying aspect of the whole stuff is that these medical insurgents will quote international best practices which I am sure they don't really understand the meaning.

     

If a practice by few countries can mean international best practices,why is it  that the beheading of non Muslims by ISIS in Syria and Iraq has not been regarded as international best practices? Also why did we not accept legalising same sex marriage in this country despite the international pressures ,why won't we  accept same sex marriage as international best practices?If these medical insurgents find out a little thing that few countries are just trying to experiment on,that will form their international best practices even when it is obvious that the countries are 'drowning' with such practices.

 

I am sure that if somebody surfs the internet,there must be  some countries where  civilians are appointed as chief of army staff or inspector general of police ,will that now serve as our own international best practices or a country like the kingdom of Saudi Arabia where the head of the government is called a king,should we now call Jonathan king in line with international best practices from  Saudi Arabia that run monarchial system of government? I remember a day Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was answering some questions in a phone-in programme during his regime,he was telling somebody that very soon Nigeria was going to have trains that would be moving at the speed of 230km/h,the caller shouted in amazement and Obasanjo replied as thus,'things take time,things take time.'

     

One problem with us is that once we see a new thing,we want to apply it in our country without first considering the conditions that were laid down before the countries reached to that level hence our former CBN governor wanted to start printing five thousand naira notes,possibly because other countries might have five thousand denominations in their currencies, without first considering the inflationary effects of that in our economy but I thank God for the public outcry that stopped the exercise. Once paramedical courses allow themselves to be serving as dumping grounds for those that failed out of medicine or those that could not make medicine through JAMB UTME ,the rift between JOHESU and doctors will never come to an end.  They should make their courses professional in that injustice is not only treating equals as non-equals,it also involves treating unequals as equals.

 

If doctors(with MBBS certificates) called medical officers working in the tertiary hospitals can never be called consultants and can never vie for the posts of chief medical directors despite their many years in the hospitals how then will it be possible to allow a group of people who got admission with lower cut off marks in their UTME; ,with lower volume of study curriculum and who studied their courses semester by semester to now come and head units/departments and hospitals where there are distinguished medical consultants?

    

At times we fool ourselves,we were crying last time due to the poor performance of students in this year's WAEC results,I simply laughed because that was exactly what we wanted in this country .If a medical doctor will not have any conspicuous difference between him and his friend who failed out from medicine ,why should we then force our kids to be serious with their studies.  I would rather I advised the young ones to pick simpler courses since the salaries will be the same and for the fact that one can reach where one wants through any course one chooses.  

 

A time will come when we will be importing the services of foreign doctors because nobody will ever go and study medicine in this country since the remunerations for both medical and paramedical professionals  are the same. This is because nobody likes taking a difficult path(like medicine ) even our lord Jesus never wanted to pass through the sufferings on the cross hence his prayers in the garden of Gethsemane, 'father if it is possible ,let this cup pass over me ....' A nurse with RN certificate which is less than or equal to OND or NCE wants to come and head medical consultants who are fellows of different postgraduate medical colleges,is that not madness?is it not time for us to invite the services of the psychiatrists?

  

I recommend that all paramedical courses be stopped forthwith in our universities while anybody that wants to specialise in any of the paramedical areas must first be a doctor  before going for specialisation,that is the only way that all their demands can be met because of the following observations:

. the doctors called ophthalmologists cannot leave the patients in the care of optometrists because ophthalmologists know that the optometrists have shallow knowledge of full medical practice ;

 

. the specialist doctors called pathologists cannot leave the patients in the hands of the medical laboratory scientists because the doctors know that the medical laboratory scientists have shallow knowledge as it involves holistic management of the patients;

 

. specialist doctors called radiologists cannot allow radiographers because they know that radiographers have shallow knowledge of medical practice;specialist doctors called obstetricians and gynaecologists will not allow the midwives do deliveries because when the midwives encounter complications ,they would be as confused as the patients' relatives and our tertiary hospitals are basically referral centers where complicated cases ought to be referred to;

 

. specialist doctors called orthopaedic surgeons cannot leave the patients to the hands of the bone technicians because the knowledge of the bone technicians are limited,if I continue the list will be indefinite.

  

If the government is confused on how to tackle this age long crisis in the health sector ,they will contact people like us to advise them appropriately so that this problem will be nipped in the bud.

 

DR PAUL JOHN

08083658038

[email protected]

Port Harcourt,

Rivers state.