Twitter user: I took a friend who had a severe asthma attack and needed to see a Doctor immediately to General hospital M*****a. Alas! I couldn’t but weep for Nigeria. I have always known how inadequate our health system is but never thought it had degenerated to this level.
My experience,
Firstly, the gate was closed. I had to honk a thousand times at the gate before eventually the security man showed face but refused to open gate for some flimsy reason as the executive GM(gateman) concerned. He eventually opened after a series of verbal altercation.
Secondly, overcrowded emergency ward: the ward was congested and suffocating with hospital staff trying to control the traffic. This situation was ideal for an epidemic.
Thirdly, Smelly environment: I was enveloped by all manner of body and mouth odor in addition to the usual smell of Izal and un-flushed toilets.
Fourthly, No empathy: health workers barely have the time to show any form of empathy to patients because there is always so much for them to do. As soon as you don’t quickly pay for your tests, (regardless of whether you have the money on you or not) they quickly move on to the next thing leaving you in a confused state.
Lastly, Dejected health workers: Although a ward round was ongoing, you could see a set of frustrated lowly motivated health workers. By their ward coat, you could deduce. We joined the queue and I felt so devastated knowing that I was going to spend my whole day in this environment. We waited hours to pay to obtain a card, waited more hours to get the card, waited even more hours to see a nurse who took vital signs like blood pressure, weight, temperature etc. before we were finally able to see a Doctor. That didn’t end there, After Doctor’s examination, we waited more hours to get the drugs from pharmacy. All this made me ill myself and I wished I could see a Doctor too but I thought of the process we went through to get to where we were. Starting all over again. I said to myself “never”. so I decided to go home with my illness and self-medicate.

Her tweet on her experience raised a lot controversies as well as concurring tweets and replies. But the most reasonable response was this, by another Twitter user.
Twitter user:
I am a health worker, quote me, majority of general hospitals in Nigeria are just the same as the one you visited. The reason is : people hardly go to primary healthcare systems in Nigeria as first point of call which is wrong. Ideally, it is the duty of primary healthcare system to refer patients to the secondary healthcare system like the general hospital that you visited. When everybody ignores the primary healthcare system and jumps straight to the secondary, that is exactly what happens, OVERCROWDING and
Secondly, most general hospitals are run by the state government who don’t give a damn( u know government things nau) the staff are never enough because they won’t even employ.

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