Nigeria's Healthcare Challenge

Hello great hivers, greetings to you all. I am amazed to see an active health community here on hive, I am a medical student and I have been searching to see an active health community, I am thrilled I finally found one. Actually this is this is my first post here in this community and I really appreciate the founders of this community for bringing up this contest.

Talking about the health care system in my country Nigeria, I would not want to go too far let me narrow it down to my community first. The health care system in my community and the country as a whole has really deteriorated, from the urban areas down to the grassroots level and that makes me to question some things, I really do wonder if Nigeria do understand the value of one’s health, I do wonder if they truly understand that the wealth of the nation depends on how healthy the citizens are.

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I doubt if they truly understand because it feels like the health sector is being treated like a no important sector, it is only important when there is a pandemic, when everyone’s live is in danger, when both the rich and the poor are at the phase of a contagious disease and boom! this is when the health of the people will be greatly considered with outmost care as in the case of the Covid 19.

The question is, will we always wait till there is an outbreak of a disease before things become better? Will the health of the citizens be at the mercy of the government? Well, I still believe that there is and there would always be a room for improvement.

Actually, if I am to rate the health care system in our country I will say it is deteriorating and there are lots of challenges that need to be addressed properly for optimum function in the health of the people. The challenges include:

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1.Health infrastructures: when talking about the health infrastructures, most hospitals are concentrated in the urban areas while the rural areas may likely have one or two health centers which might not even be functioning. There are lots of health crises in interior villages, most times, these rural areas lack the necessary medical resources, trained healthcare professionals, and equipment to handle common health issues.

As a result of these, people living in these areas often have to travel long distances to seek medical care in the urban areas, which can be costly, time-consuming, and even life-threatening in cases of emergencies. Additionally, these rural health centers may be underfunded, sometimes understaffed, and poorly maintained, which further worsen the challenges in accessing quality healthcare.

The lack of proper infrastructure in rural areas continues to contribute to health differences between urban and rural populations and there is a great need for significant investments in healthcare infrastructure across the country.

2.Lack Or Inadequate Health Equipment And Facilities: aside the fact that most rural areas lack health infrastructures, the hospitals in our country lack most basic health facilities. While I was still younger we had a neighbor who died at the hospital, not that the did not arrive on time but from the information I got was that the was no facility to aid the treatment so he had to be transferred to a different hospital but before the got there he gave up a ghost, I am very sure that he would not have died if the hospital he was admitted at first had the essential equipment for his treatment.

This is just proving how poor some hospitals could be without enough facilities, funny enough most of the government officials know quite well and tend to fly abroad for their treatment leaving behind citizens to wallow in pains and die due to lack of good and functioning facilities.

3.Affordability: I tend to talk about the rural community a lot because I grew there and I understand what most of the people face. A lot of people in the rural areas bluntly refuse to go to hospitals because they can’t afford the bills, I remember trying to persuade my grandma to go to the hospital for medical check up but she refused stating that she will end up spending more than what she has.

And obviously it is very true, the last time I went with my friend to the hospital for test, she had to pay about five thousand naira alone to purchase hospital card before the test was carried out and she still had to pay for the test again. So all these discourages people who do not even have enough money from going to the hospital for treatment and they will definitely settle for traditional treatment.

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4.Inadequate Healthcare Workers: in our country today, hundreds of medical student will graduate as doctors but yet we still lack doctors and nurses. All these is due to the emigration of doctors, nurses and radiographers etc out of the country, here we call it “japa syndrome” in other countries Nigerians practice better. We can’t completely blame them for choosing to leave, they do so because the are not being paid well and this leave them with the option of seeking for greener pastures elsewhere and that leads to brain drain in our country.

Innovative Solutions to Improve Access to Quality Healthcare

Rather than sit back and discuss the problems we need to equally look for ways to make things better.

1.Provision of Adequate Infrastructures to the Rural Areas:
The government should increase funding for the healthcare sector to improve healthcare infrastructure especially to the rural areas.

2.Provision of Healthcare Equipment: to curtail the mortality rate in our country, there is need for health equipment and facilities.

3. Health Insurance Scheme: Health Insurance Scheme should be implemented to enhance affordability of healthcare services, this will make people worry less about having to pay hospital bills.

4. Curb The Rate Of Brain Drain:The government should curb the emigration of health personnel by offering them a better option in their homeland.

These are just some few ways we could tackle the problems facing our health sector in Nigeria.

In summary, addressing the healthcare system in Nigeria is not only about the government but as individuals too, we need to be intentional about our health, we need to prioritize our health by staying fit and eating the right diet rather than junks, we all should remember that “your health is your wealth”, and prevention is better than cure.

I also want to use this medium to invite @peckypeace and @joyben to share their insight in this topic.

Thank you all for reading.

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