NIGERIAN health care providers have been admonished to be always patient-focused in their professional deliberations so that they can live up to the expectations of the public at large. Making the call in Lagos, Provost of the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, CMUL, Prof. Folashade Ogunsola, said in agitating for better working conditions and environment, the health team should not forget the patient.

 

Ogunshola who spoke during a special ceremony held for 25 doctors who passed their final exams, and emerged as Fellows after several years of specialist training at the institution, urged medical professionals in the country to close ranks in the interest of the patient.

 

“We must become patient- oriented. We will fight for their rights and the equipment but as we are fighting we mustn’t kill them in the process. “I welcome the health bill and I think it is a beginning; the government needs to articulate what it wants.

 

We do not have to reinvent anything bust must take on global best practices and want what is good for patient care,.

 

 

“I’m glad we have a signed health bill, but as a country we have not decided which way forward for health. There has been too much politicisation which has been more about groups wanting power than about patient care. Noting that the health team is about medicine, she said the doctor will be the head of the team, not the boss, because there is a difference between the head and the boss.

 

“That puts a lot of responsibility on the doctor to be a leader. In any group of people, once you are the leader, a lot of responsibility rides on it, but once you give responsibility, you must give the wherewithal for that to happen,”she admonished. Ogunshola who remarked that over time, the health team has not lived up to the expectation of the public, stated that in the midst of fighting for what each group needs, the medical team must become patient- oriented.

 

“We will fight for their rights and the equipment but as we are fighting we mustn’t kill them in the process.

 

“What I want to pass on to the new Fellows is that our oath is to save lives, even when things are bad for us, as we fight authority we mustn’t forget the reasons we are fighting. We are fighting for patient lives and so our actions must not add to their suffering.”

 

Also urging the new Fellows to remember their oath, Chief Medical Director, Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, Prof. Chris Bode, described the medical profession as a work in progress, he observed that government remains the largest employer of medical workforce.

 

“However, we are transitioning into a society where the private sector will increasingly dominate the market, so the market forces will eventually make things work better with greater efficiency, productivity.

 

“Increased efficiency must be brought to bear on the public sector so we will give the people what they want. We should justify the huge financial outlay. I’m optimistic for this sector, in the sense that with people like these passing out, Nigeria cannot say we do not have good and adequate manpower in the health sector,” he opined.

  

By Sola Ogundipe

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