We perform surgeries with torch - Doctors
Muda Oyeniran, Lagos
Thursday, October 15, 2009

THE decay in the Nigerian health sector occasioned by the deplorable state of infrastructure was brought to the fore in Lagos, on Wednesday, when the chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Lagos State chapter, Dr. Adedamola Dada, disclosed to the amazement of the audience, that doctors had been performing surgeries using torch and administering drugs with the aid of telephone handsets.




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The occasion was a symposium organised by the Lagos NMA, as part of activities to mark the 2009 Physicians’ Week. Dada, who lamented the working conditions of doctors in the country, said they were being confronted daily with problems of caring for the patients in difficult conditions, adding that emergency cases were handled with suctioning machines that were not functional due to blackout.

“I can boast that you can hardly find a practicing surgeon in Nigeria who has not operated a patient using torch as source of illumination,” he added. He, however, expressed regrets that doctors were always at the receiving end when adverse events occurred

“The Nigerian doctor is condemned, insulted and harassed by the people and the press. Thousands of patients, who are daily treated and discharged in good health, are never noted, but the whole world talks endlessly about any infarction,” he added.

Speaking on the bill on gunshot victims currently before the Senate, Dada said the new bill was unnecessary, since there was an existing national health bill already passed by the House of Representatives and awaiting the consideration of the Senate on the same issue.