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Well - Motivated Radiographers As Panacea To Medical Tourism In Nigeria by bukkyzems(m): 12:04pm On Jul 11, 2015 |
Well-Motivated
Radiographers As Panacea To
Medical Tourism In Nigeria
— Jul 10, 2015 8:09 pm | 1 Comment
The likely feeling any informed patient will
have is that of all their investigations in the
hospital, the ones that do not involve
collecting tissue specimen from them by
their bedside are done with sophisticated
equipment in a separate department of the
hospital. That separate location is what is
known in hospitals as radiology, medical
imaging or radiation medicine department.
The sophisticated equipment are same as
what we all see in movies and on television.
And the operators of those equipment are
called radiographers.
What investigations would a ‘big man’
possibly be looking for in Europe and
America if not Computed Tomography (CT
scan), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI),
Nuclear Medicine, Thermography,
Radiotherapy, Mammography (breast
scanner), Fluoroscopy, Digital Radiography,
Echocardiography and ultrasonography? All
these are handled by radiographers.
Interestingly, all these modalities, with the
exception of thermography, are available in
several hospitals and diagnostic centres in
Nigeria. Are they functional? Yes. Are they
really efficient? Yes. Are they serviceable?
Yes. Are they well-manned? Yes. Manned by
who? Radiographers.
The other sophisticated investigations not
handled by radiographers are possibly DNA
tests and tissue biopsy. But if these are not
the immediate concern of an individual then
their medical footsteps may end up at the
doorsteps of a radiographer. Radiographers
are University-trained medical scientists
who spend a minimum of five academic
sessions in the university/teaching hospital
to acquire the rare and specialised skills
need to operate the sophisticated equipment
mentioned earlier on. Before they are
allowed to practice howeve, they are
mandated by law to undergo a mandatory
year-long internship and subsequently,
NYSC.
While many Nigerians may be familiar with
x-ray and ultrasound, not many know much
about other radiological equipment
especially the CT-scanner. The first CT-
Scanner was installed in Nigeria at the
University Teaching Hospital, Ibadan in
1987 under the regime of military President
Ibrahim Babangida. The coming of General
Sani Abacha raised the ante as he, through
the National Hospital, Abuja replicated a
prototype Europe and American-like hospital
in Nigeria, in addition to other state-of-the-
art facilities for other tertiary health
institutions across Nigeria. The greatest
boost to facilities in our hospitals however,
was in the regime of chief Olusegun
Obasanjo through his VAMED project. Chief
Obasanjo made exotic diagnostic facilities
like CT-Scan and MRI commonplace.
It is ironic that three decades after the first
graduate Radiographers were released into
the labour market, Nigerians are still not
fully familiar with the expertise or even
aware of the presence of such rare breeds
of medical professionals. The fault for this
information lacuna is not only among the
radiographers themselves, but also a
problem of the guidians and counselors who
know next-to-nothing about the Radiography
profession and hence, never mention it to
brilliant minds in secondary school. Till date,
the writer goes about giving career talks in
schools considered the best in the locality
yet the ignorance displayed by staff and
students is demoralising.
This ignorance is also rampant amongst the
political elite as some state legislators made
laws approving the training of
‘radiographers’ in some laughable schools
of Health Technologies. This misguided
students are churned out as quacks who
can never be licensed to practice this highly
technical profession. There are also
politicians who indicate interest to lobby for
a job for some radiographer? What
ignorance! Who ever saw a radiographer
looking for a job? As we say in Radiography
family, ‘Jobs look for radiographers.’ That is
the reality for now. Not just because the
practitioners are few, less than three
thousand nationwide, but because tens of
thousand of medical centres in Nigeria need
their services for elementary investigations
like ultrasound, mammography and x-ray.
As at 2003 only the University of Nigeria and
UNICAL trained radiographers. Suddenly it
dawned on some northern governors that
they lacked skilled Radiographers to man
their sophisticated medical equipment. And
as practical solution the University of
Maiduguri, Bayero and Usman Dan Fodio
have commenced the training of
radiographers. However, establishing
radiography programme is one thing,
motivating those who are qualified and
employed, to remain in the employ of a state
government is another thing.
I state without fear of contradiction that
more than half of the state governments in
Nigeria do not have a single radiographer in
their employment. The governors can ask
their commissioners of health to take an
immediate census on that. Ironically, every
state governor rushes to build a ‘state-of-
the-art’ hospital or ‘an ultra-modern
diagnostic centre’ equipped with CT-Scanner
and other sophisticated radiological
equipment that truly gives it the state-of-the-
art look. Pray, who is going to man the
facilities? Radiographers of course. But
Nigerian radiographers will keep running
away from state governments until they do
the needful. Every ‘state-of-the-art’ centre
built from Akwa Ibom to Kogi, Imo to Yobe
and Ekiti to Katsina will eventually turn into
a white elephant project or at best, operate
at a sub-optimal capacity because of the
dearth of skilled radiography manpower.
And this will lead to medical tourism to
Europe and America and recently, middle
east. Medical tourism will gradually come to
a stop if the will to employ and retain
radiographers is there. There is no need to
go to Europe for a procedure that can be
done in Abuja, Port Harcourt, Lagos or even
Aba as competently as ever. The facilities
are already on ground. The radiographers
are available for employment. But the
governments still think everybody will troop
out to seek for a job. Radiographers should
be lured and motivated like was done in
Ilorin by a certain ‘Kwara Advanced
Diagnotic Centre’, a truly state-of-the-art
centre with full complement of
Radiographers.
Even the federal government hospitals need
to up their ante to retain the services of
Radiographer who are easily lured by
attractive offers from private diagnostic
centres nationwide as well as employers
from across the Atlantic. Welfare issues
concerning Radiographers should not be
handled with kids gloves. Their re-training
home and abroad should be annual and of
utmost priority. Once remote cause of
cancer is radiation. Radiographers use
radiation daily in their professional practice.
Therefore, the issue of ‘radiation hazard
allowance’ which is not being enjoyed
exclusively by Radiographers but paid to all
health workers should be reviewed for the
radiographer cadre to be at least 25 per cent
of basic salary.
Any state government that wishes to retain
the services of a radiographer should not
employ them like hopeless jobseekers, but
should consider the exercise a special
appointment that equates to a political
appointment with all the privileges that
accrue. That would be a good starting point.
Then there would be no need to travel to
Europe, to wit, to go to Sokoto for what is in
your Sokoto.
Adejoh, Tom (M.Sc Radiography); Clinical
Radiographer; 07055302110;
adtoms@yahoo.com 1 Like |
(1) (Reply)
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