The President, Nigerian Medical Association, Dr. Osahon Enabulele, in this interview with GBENRO ADEOYE, insists that physicians are best suited to head teaching hospitals

Is it not biased to say only doctors should head hospitals when health care delivery is encompassing?

In any human system, even in heaven and hell, there is order. The phenomenon playing out in the public health care sector amounts to an unnecessary equality beauty contest and unholy quest for the doctor’s leadership authority. This is quite unfortunate and uncalled for.

Every profession and system has a ‘soul’ and a custodian of the core values. That should be someone that has a broad-based general knowledge of the intricate workings of that system or sector. In the health care sector, this professional is unquestionably the medical doctor.

People have been referring to some settings outside Nigeria where the so-called professional managers are heading hospitals. May I point out here that recent evidence has proved that physician-led hospitals perform better in terms of positive patient outcomes which are the primary concern of the health care sector. The argument as to who is best suited to head the hospitals/health establishments has essentially been put to rest by results of scientific studies, the latest being that by a world renowned researcher Amanda Goodall in the USA, who established that hospitals run by doctors were doing far better than those run by the administrators and any other groups of persons. She went further to posit that the main reason for this is that patient care is at the centre of doctors’ training and practice and are therefore in a better position to take certain decisions which are critical for patient’s survival.

Are you saying we can’t find a trained nurse, pharmacist etc who can manage a hospital better than a doctor or be a better administrator?

This is beyond emotional reasoning. In the management of public hospitals, physicians are better suited to manage hospitals as it is not purely a profit-oriented venture, but one in which a delicate balance has to be made between quality patient care/patient needs and profit making. It is expected that the manager of a hospital would be one with a broad and deep understanding of patient needs in addition to his/her cognate managerial experiences which could be garnered as head of several units and departments within the hospital.

Medical and Dental practitioners are not only good clinicians, but also good and excellent managers of human, material and financial resources through administrative acumen, generally garnered on the job through experience and other formal and informal training.

Health care or hospital management is not about democratic selection or election. If it was, then one day, the catechist would start celebrating masses in the Catholic Church since he now possesses PhD. Or the Nurse anaesthetist would start performing surgery on the basis of the votes garnered from members of the surgical team. For those who want to turn best practices upside down, I encourage them to establish a hospital and appoint a paramedic or allied health care worker as the head.

The health minister, Onyebuchi Chukwu, once said that a hospital is totally a doctor’s territory, do you agree with this assertion?

Many a time, public officers are misquoted or interpreted out of context. This is what I suspect could have happened here. I am sure the Hon. Minister was trying to explain what I just told you now. No medical doctor would want to become the managing director of a pharmaceutical industry if he has no specific training in Clinical Pharmacology or Therapeutics which are also clinical specialties. No medical doctor has attempted becoming Head of the Nigerian Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Development whose management has been colonised by pharmacists or the Army, Navy or Air force. Doctors know their limits. Doctors are simply support staff in these sectors.

Many paramedics, including pharmacists,nurses, laboratory technologists/’scientists,’ physiotherapists, etc. have changed their professions by going back to school to study medicine and become what they feel should guarantee their happiness. Have you heard of a doctor who left the medical profession to read physiotherapy or medical laboratory science or nursing? People should be contented with their professional status, defined roles and positions instead of over-heating the health care environment with frivolous allegations and agitations.

Issues of performance can sometimes be subjective but we will find quite a number of people who will say that Prof. Eyitayo Lambo did well as a health minister. Yet, he was not a doctor but a health economist? Why can’t other health care professionals become health ministers?

Prof Eyitayo Lambo is a man well respected in NMA circles. It is on record that Prof. Eyitayo Lambo received tremendous tutelage from late Prof. Olikoye Ransome-Kuti (a medical doctor). I am sure that his performance could have been better if he had some medical training. Indeed, I am convinced that if you ask him today what else could have made his administration achieve more, he would tell you that it is medical training. This is so because the head of the health care sector should truly have a general knowledge of most, if not all the component areas of health and the health care delivery system. It is also for this reason that a lawyer heads the judicial sector. The lawyer is in addition the Permanent secretary in the ministry of justice despite the fact that there are other paralegal professionals in the judiciary.

As a doctor who signed the Hippocratic Oath, don’t you think that you’ve broken the oath with unhealthy relationship between doctors and other health care professionals which does not help the health system?

I am quite sure that Hippocrates would be very uncomfortable in his grave or wherever he is, seeing what is happening in Nigeria today. Imagine a situation where one of his assistants would tell him to step aside for them to take over headship of the health team. That would be outright sacrilege. This is the more reason we are complaining loudly against the emerging phenomenon of unhealthy rivalry and unholy equality beauty contest in the health sector. Doctors are leaders who are always ready to accommodate the allied health professionals as members of the health team which he/she leads. After all, the doctor essentially created them in the first place when he/she transited from his solo hospital practice (where he rendered all the clinical and ancillary healthcare services to his/her patient) to hospital practice after he developed most of the support services and allied health professions and middle-level health workforce.

What about the incessant strike actions by doctors, which are mostly about allowances and money, how do you explain or relate this with the oath you signed?

The father of modern medicine did state that he made the declarations in good faith with the condition that the society would give him his due and the good things of life. The father of modern medicine never anticipated that a day would come when a physician would be owed salaries or other earned allowances for several months or made to work in despicable and rodent infested work places that constantly distract him/her or be victim of kidnappers. Today, the society and governments at all levels are flouting their own part of the covenant.

Other health professionals rarely go on strike; why is it that they are more committed to health care delivery than doctors who are always seen to be fighting for their pockets?

You must be joking about this. You talk as if you are not in this our country where the other health care workers have made strikes a past time and an instrument of blackmail. I am sure you followed up the last strike action embarked upon by allied health professionals in the month of August. I mean when they metamorphosed into an amalgam of strange bed fellows under JOHESU and other contraptions and embarked on strike action. I am sure you heard that some of them, especially at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Teaching Hospital (NAUTH), Nnewi, switched off power and water supply, as well as life support machines that were supporting patients being treated by doctors in the intensive care unit. Were you happy with these vicious attacks launched on innocent patients? What will you call this kind of method? I expect you as a journalist to hinge your position on facts.

Some people say that most doctors working in government hospitals have their own private clinics, is this ethical?

Let me state here that it is the inalienable fundamental right of any free citizen of Nigeria to utilise his time and space outside official government working hours (8am to 4pm) the way he/she so chooses. I am very conscious of the fact that many public servants on account of years of pauperisation through systematic economic deprivation now have private ventures which they superintend once they close from official government work at 4pm. Now, what we despise and abhor as a body of doctors is the use of government time for private business or practice.

Some people even say that such doctors in government hospitals go on strike to give attention to their own private hospitals? Do you think it’s fair?

If it is true that the sole motive of embarking on strike action is for selfish reasons, that can never be fair. But do you really think that the reason for incurring extra burden of work is for paltry profit? How profitable really do you think medical practice is? I can tell you that private medical practice in Nigeria is generally one of strenuous community service. Cases abound where the medical/dental practitioner treats a patient and also pays the hospital bills of the patient, as most patients who are treated in private hospitals are usually too indigent to pay their bills.

Why do some doctors aid fake drug dealers?

How? I respectfully beg to differ. Doctors are not the professionals involved in drug importation. Pharmacists are the professionals that are usually involved in drug importation. So, you may want to ask pharmacists this question. I am yet to see a medical doctor who wilfully patronises manufacturers or importers of fake drugs. No doctor would want to cause harm to his/her patient no matter how strong the desire for profit could be.

Does the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria inspect pharmacy units of hospitals, including private ones?

The Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) is only empowered to regulate licensed and registered pharmacists as these are the only group of professionals under their jurisdiction and regulatory ambit. They are not empowered to regulate the practices of medical doctors and dentists or hospitals owned by them.

Doctors seem to be complaining less about their salaries but on relativity, which describes your salary in comparison with those of other health professionals, why are you competing with them?

It is very demeaning for you to say that we are competing with any group. For very obvious reasons, medical doctors are in a distinct class and income group in virtually all countries of the world, including the United States of America and the United Kingdom. It is pertinent to state that there are international best practices guiding the remuneration of professionals and health workers all over the world. On account of the difference in the value and worth of the different categories of health workers, there is a globally acknowledged principle of relativity in the determination of the wages/salaries of health workers with the salary and allowances of medical doctors/dentists distinctly higher than that of allied health professionals or paramedics. It is only in Nigeria that this globally acknowledged practice is not observed. All the efforts of the NMA over the years to ensure institutionalisation of this globally held principle in Nigeria has not yielded much dividends.

Is it not embarrassing that most doctors prefer to practise abroad?

Who is to blame? Certainly, not doctors. From my earlier analysis, is it really surprising to you that several Nigerian trained medical professionals are practising outside the shores of Nigeria?

In life, man has always adopted self-preservation and survivalist tendencies as the ground norm. The doctor is not an exception. However, what embarrasses us is why people like you journalists are not trying to find out why doctors born, bred and trained in Nigeria are migrating in droves to foreign lands despite the huge burden of disease back home. In those foreign lands, they find job satisfaction, greater reward for work done, greater prospects of actualising their life ambitions; they are not encumbered in the work place by suffocating and very irritating equality beauty contest for position, status and relevance with the doctor. They are protected from kidnappers; the society they serve accords them appropriate recognition and respect which Hippocrates promised his followers. Have you now seen why things are the way they are?

Why do so many doctors engage in carrying out abortion?

I don’t know what you mean by many? I also don’t know where you got your facts from? Is it from your experience or what? What proportion of Nigerian doctors do you consider as many? Abortion is still illegal in Nigeria. I concede that some doctors may be involved in this act of abortion procurement but I must hasten to inform you that some do it as a therapeutic measure to save the life of the pregnant mother. This is allowed. What I think should worry you more is the fact that there are several unscrupulous individuals, both health and non-health professionals who are involved in this illegal practice with the patients who patronise them left to suffer unmitigated disaster and sometimes death.

I encourage members of the public to report such cases and also report themselves that approached the unscrupulous individuals for such illegal abortion services. It takes two to tangle.

These days, there are many cases where patients have been misdiagnosed by Nigerian doctors. For example, former president, Umaru Yar’Adua and late Gani Fawehinmi. Is it that doctors are not well-trained?

Medical diagnosis is a process that is influenced by several factors. There are some occasions where the doctor/clinician has to rely on other support services or technologies, including ultrasound scans, ECG, laboratory test, CT-scan, MRI and x-rays to assist him/her in making a diagnosis. This, the doctor does in about 20% – 30% of the patients that consult him. Unfortunately in our country, the state of our health facilities, particularly the medical laboratories and the individuals who operate these laboratories are unsatisfactory. This is not helped by the unhealthy and unnecessary conflict between the laboratory technologists and the clinical pathologists who are supposed to review the results produced by the laboratory technologists/scientists. This accounts for most cases of mis-diagnosis in Nigeria. Again, most clients expect a one stop miracle each time they visit a doctor. Even in developed countries, it could take certain time consuming processes to finally arrive at a diagnosis. This is the reason why we have such terminologies as preliminary diagnosis, working diagnosis and final diagnosis. Sometimes, the final diagnosis may even be made after autopsy. Yes, this is medicine.

Unfortunately, in Nigeria, doctors are judged unfairly in the court of public opinion aided with the on-going propaganda engineered by certain groups of health workers against the doctor, all in an attempt to pull the doctor down at all cost. I wish to responsibly and respectfully state here that the two distinguished Nigerian leaders you mentioned were not misdiagnosed in Nigeria but the processes at arriving at the proper diagnosis were not exhausted for several reasons.

Another factor worth considering is the evident lack of equipment in our health facilities, particularly at the primary and secondary levels of care, such that the Nigerian doctor doesn’t have most of what he requires to deliver quality services.

Majority of Nigerians believe that doctors are half-baked and killing Nigerians, is it that you doctors should be paid to kill?

It would amount to over flogging the matter to start answering that question. If our doctors are really bad, would you still find people going to hospitals? Go and check the scores of Nigerian doctors who write foreign qualifying exams, then you would be convinced that the Nigerian doctor is a genius. However, one must concede that a lot can still be done to restructure both the undergraduate and post graduate medical training curriculum, fund the medical training institutions in order to attract and retain quality medical trainers and guarantee global best standards.

People say that consultants earn millions of naira for doing nothing.

That is preposterous, scurrilous and sacrilegious. Ordinarily, I would not have bothered to respond to this question because I am quite conscious of the fact that it was the president of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Pharm. Olumide Akintayo, who arrogantly and mischievously told this lie. However, I am compelled to respond because I think he took his obsessive bitterness, hatred and inferiority complex too far, and certainly without the mandate of his members who are traditionally respected allies of doctors. I must say that Pharmacist Olumide Akintayo instantly lost my respect when he arrogantly told this and other blatant lies against the medical profession. We know he has a penchant to blindly deride and oppose the medical profession. I will urge his elders to pull him back from his self-destructive mission. Leaders don’t behave this way.

Fortunately, I was one of the key players that negotiated, on behalf of the NMA, the current Consolidated Medical Salary Structure for medical and dental practitioners in Nigeria (CONMESS) between 2003 and 2009, and I can authoritatively declare to you that there is no hospital consultant in Nigeria that earns that amount of money that he claimed. Not even the highest paid hospital consultant at the terminal of the public service scale takes home anything near that, especially after the heavy tax imposed on him by his/her employers.

I must posit that there is also no truth in his false and incredulous statement that the medical consultant does nothing in the hospital. By that unfortunate statement, he clearly exposed his crass ignorance of the nature, position, role and responsibilities of the medical consultant. The medical or dental consultant is the seen and unseen guardian angel of the health team. He/she is the hand that directs; the faculty that thinks; the seal that binds the clinical decision making process and implementation of those clinical decisions taken in the hospital. Surely, the medical consultant is the officer that takes the ultimate clinical decisions on patient care. These are weighty responsibilities which the peddlers of this falsehood have failed to appreciate. I urge them to quickly come to terms with the philosophy behind the position of the medical consultant as the ultimate clinical decision maker as it concerns patient management; and one who takes ultimate responsibility for the actions and inactions of the health team and its members.

I strongly advise the PSN President to stop misleading his members and the general public. He should stop pettifogging over very serious matters of national and international importance.

I urge the PSN President and all those who are ignorant of the role of the Medical Consultant to please study and discover for themselves the practice world over.

Consultants have abandoned their work to resident doctors, who are more or less trainees, is this not very dangerous?

Resident doctors are not medical students. They are not trainee doctors. Rather, they are trainee consultants/specialists. Please, let this sink into the faculties of those who deride house officers and resident doctors in Nigeria. Moreover, they are acting on behalf of their medical consultants who have found them worthy of discharging any responsibility assigned to them. This is the world-wide practice and training requirements for would-be medical consultants.

Nigeria currently has a huge gap in the number of medical consultants available in the country and one sure way for the needed specialists to be produced is this kind of exposure and training. So, there is nothing abnormal about this.

The clamour for the reduction of the period of medical training had recently grown, are you in support of it?

It has been proved that the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, to whom this statement was credited, was actually misrepresented in that news report. He was actually condemning the practices by some professional groups who are unscrupulously elongating their years of undergraduate training as a means to equate themselves with the doctors.

We realise the gross deficiency in health manpower needs of the country but reduction of standard in any manner would be inimical to patient care. It would certainly not help to mitigate the challenge of health human resource. As an association, we are convinced the way to go is to expand the available facilities in the existing medical schools with recruitment of the appropriate and adequate number of medical trainers; We also advise that greater efforts should be made to encourage the establishment of medical schools but without compromising standards in any way.

Again, the government and the training institutions should introduce schemes to guarantee the recruitment and retention of quality medical trainers and medical consultants/specialists to deliver the right knowledge and quality training.

Assess the state of Nigeria’s teaching hospitals

Though Nigeria’s teaching hospitals may not be operating at their optimal levels as a result of evident systemic challenges and poor funding, one must appreciate the ingenuity of most of the managers of the teaching hospitals which has ensured their survival unlike the frequent collapse of other government parastatals and private companies, including banks which are managed by supposed business managers and CEOs.

Undoubtedly, the needs and challenges of the teaching hospitals are legion, but the resources to satisfy those needs are getting increasingly tenuous.

Doctors are not allowed to treat gunshot wounds, I don’t know if this has changed. But if it has not, what are you doing to change it?

There is no law banning doctors from treating patients with gunshot wounds. What happened was that the Nigerian Police started insisting that doctors should only treat those who have security clearance and police report. Many innocent doctors who treated gunshot wound patients were frequently harassed and traumatised by the law enforcement agents. Similarly many innocent citizens suffered on account of this and lives were lost.

http://www.punchng.com/politics/hotseat/pharmacists-nurses-others-should-stop-competing-with-doctors-nma-president/

So Long They are all in the Business of Saving Lives, I don't think there is any competition there.

What People are Mostly Interested in Is Just Competence and Rapt Professionalism. Most Of these Medical Practitioners Don't know what they are doing and This Inturn has Resulted in innumerable and Unwarranted Loss of Lives!

Oya clap for urself Mr, NMA president.If i havn't worked in a teaching hsptl setting before,i wld hv believed the trash u published in the newspaper.But i know better.It irks u that the court case btw scientists and pathologists was ruled in favour of the medical scientist......too bad.But u now hv the guts to say this trash.It is the doctors who want to take over the jobs of other health professionals.Imagine a pathologist counter-signing a lab result after Lab director has signed.What right does he have to do so?Anyway,that is now a thing of the past,thanks to justice.This is just an example out of many others.Nobody is trying to do the job of a doctor,but the doctors hv little or no respect for other health professionals.Their ego knows no bounds,with few intelligent ones knowing that the can't do it all.

All of them are involved in Medical practice, all that they have to do is respect each other in the line of duty. It is only in Nigeria that a midwife will do the work of a doctor......

Wol-ef7:

All of them are involved in Medical practice, all that they have to do is respect each other in the line of duty. It is only in Nigeria that a midwife will do the work of a doctor......

That,my good friend,can only be found in quack and substandard hospitals.But this issue of doctors trying to override other health professionals can even be found in teaching hospitals.If u know any pharmacist,medical scientist,radiologist or physiotherapist,working in a tertiary hospital,ask him/her abt the situation.I'm sure u'll be told the truth!

GentleMimi: Oya clap for urself Mr, NMA president.If i havn't worked in a teaching hsptl setting before,i wld hv believed the trash u published in the newspaper.But i know better.It irks u that the court case btw scientists and pathologists was ruled in favour of the medical scientist......too bad.But u now hv the guts to say this trash.It is the doctors who want to take over the jobs of other health professionals.Imagine a pathologist counter-signing a lab result after Lab director has signed.What right does he have to do so?Anyway,that is now a thing of the past,thanks to justice.This is just an example out of many others.Nobody is trying to do the job of a doctor,but the doctors hv little or no respect for other health professionals.Their ego knows no bounds,with few intelligent ones knowing that the can't do it all.

Scientist Do you mean to say a medical lab technologist?
What is the basis for comparing a pathologist with any one of his numerous subordinates like a technologist?
People like you really need a little bit more education, because a pathologist, just like other consultants is trained to put everything together: X-ray, lab results, pathology slide, pharmaceuticals, clinical presentation, social welfare, nursing, operating room, etc, etc. for the best interest of the patient.
Low quality of medical practice in Nigeria is not because of the doctor and other ancilliary staff are not equal, but because the unstable political atmosphere in Nigeria has adversly affected every major profession from medicine, to law, to accounting, and engineering.
How can a lab tech who has no training in radiology, nutrition, or pharmacy argue with someone who does?
I tell staff like you to shut up, until I need to hear from you.

This is a bitter, loquacious and unrefined nincompoop.No wonder our best healthcare professionals and sick leaders go outside the country. NMA deserves a better president than this jackass.That he fails to realize that things have changed means he doesn't have the right strategy to get the house in order, to him the Nigerian health sector should continue to have disgruntled poorly motivated workers because one biased doctor replaced all professional hospital administrators with his fellow doctors (haba!). He didn't even proffer a single solution to this unhealthy rivalry, he is busy quoting a journal done in a sane clime instead of finding out the main reason why Lambo succeeded as a health minister even though prof. Lambo's an economist.No right thinking health professional will accepts the coup initiated by the biased Olikoye Ransome-kuti to go uncorrected. In his life time, he would see that the truth will prevail.

naijaking1:

Scientist Do you mean to say a medical lab technologist?
What is the basis for comparing a pathologist with any one of his numerous subordinates like a technologist?
People like you really need a little bit more education, because a pathologist, just like other consultants is trained to put everything together: X-ray, lab results, pathology slide, pharmaceuticals, clinical presentation, social welfare, nursing, operating room, etc, etc. for the best interest of the patient.
Low quality of medical practice in Nigeria is not because of the doctor and other ancilliary staff are not equal, but because the unstable political atmosphere in Nigeria has adversly affected every major profession from medicine, to law, to accounting, and engineering.
How can a lab tech who has no training in radiology, nutrition, or pharmacy argue with someone who does?
I tell staff like you to shut up, until I need to hear from you.

Listen to urself,Mr, Egostical,i work wif doctors and everyone respects eachother's profession.I will not bother exchanging words wif u b'cos it is obvious u're still fresh and inexperienced...hence the ''swollen'' head.But i promise u that u'll be put in ur place very soon.
If really u're a medical worker *not a dumb quack*,u'll know that a laboratory setting consists of a lab assistant,a lab technician and finally the lab scientist.Its obvious u're still in medical school,and still green on the ears.
And as for u telling a professional to shut up,come on...like seriously,u watch too many nollywood movies ooooo.Why shld a pathologist hv rights over other professionals who studied the course at B Sc,masters and in some cases,Phd levels.Nigerian mentality! allow others to be leaders in their field and stop encroaching! The fact that u realise power is gradually shifting frm ur hands has got u ppl jittery.Good riddance.
A student,and u're already thinking of how u'll tell a health professional to ''shut up''.You think u're better than every other health professional? U're on ur path to failure.Learn frm sucessful Doctors,they are humble and down to earth.You never finish school,u don dey swell up like puffpuff.Empty vessel.I hope that u dn't ever work in a teaching hsptl setting.It is people like u that are served as breakfast.

The Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) is only empowered to regulate licensed and registered pharmacists as these are the only group of professionals under their jurisdiction and regulatory ambit. They are not empowered to regulate the practices of medical doctors and dentists or hospitals owned by them.


He wants to continue to dispense fake, cheap and expired drugs behind the pharmacist council of Nigeria.These private clinics illegally stock drugs in unwholesome conditions and when the drug is not utilized before it's expired, the hungry doctor changes the label and transfer these drugs into a new container!! Abeg, let him go and read the law on pharmacy practice. In sane climes, a medical doctor prescribes the drug to the patient to get his drug from a registered pharmacist. This practice has helped to save lives and quackery medical practice. Michael Jackson's doctor was caught because he gets his prescription serviced by a registered pharmacist. The country is ripe for a central prescription system that is integrated to the pharmacy practice.
PCN monitoring the private hospital pharmacy will save lives!!
Stay off a hospital without a resident pharmacist, their drugs are unwholesome and you will still pay exorbitant rate for it.insist he gives you a prescription to procure your drugs from registered pharmacists

No medical doctor would want to become the managing director of a pharmaceutical industry if he has no specific training in Clinical Pharmacology or Therapeutics which are also clinical specialties

Lol!!!To head a pharmaceutical company you will need your pharmacy practice license not your certificate in west African postgraduate in CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGY.This man is a clown for assuming clinical pharmacology is same as industrial pharmacy. This is not a course that you will be allowed to have 3 resits like it is done in our medical schools . It's for the best in pharmaceutics and pharmaceutical technology which is like medicine and engineering combined. The clown in NAFDAC just realized this after his greed made him take the DG appointment influenced by his cousin former attorney general Aondoakaa

naijaking1:

Scientist Do you mean to say a medical lab technologist?
What is the basis for comparing a pathologist with any one of his numerous subordinates like a technologist?
People like you really need a little bit more education, because a pathologist, just like other consultants is trained to put everything together: X-ray, lab results, pathology slide, pharmaceuticals, clinical presentation, social welfare, nursing, operating room, etc, etc. for the best interest of the patient.
Low quality of medical practice in Nigeria is not because of the doctor and other ancilliary staff are not equal, but because the unstable political atmosphere in Nigeria has adversly affected every major profession from medicine, to law, to accounting, and engineering.
How can a lab tech who has no training in radiology, nutrition, or pharmacy argue with someone who does?
I tell staff like you to shut up, until I need to hear from you.

I am sorry, you seem to be living in the past because currently there is no professional cadre in Nigeria known as medical laboratory Technologist but Medical Laboratory Scientist which replaced and superseded the former by an act of law (Act 11 of 2003) over 10 yrs ago.

Moreover quite recently, the said professionals successfully freed themselves from the overbearing attitude and clasp of the pathologists who with the collusion of their medical associations were intruding into the scientist's profession. They were freed in a landmark court judgement, at the National Industrial Court on 23rd October 2013.

http://allmedlabnewsupdate..com/2013/11/court-declares-medical-laboratory_6937.html

Pathologists may well be advised to reign in their egos because accordingly scientists are by no means their supposed subordinates but a separate profession entitled to full recognition and their own department in relevant health institutions.

Therefore you and your colleagues may wish to go and look for other professionals to bully, because definitely Medical Laboratory Scientists are no longer within reach of your tyrannical clutches and certainly never destined to be your boys whether your like it or not.

BTW, I happen to have a brother who had suffered under the system, I therefore know and sympathize with him and his colleagues.

^^^^
That is Nigeria for you.
People fight for the wrong reason, because they think it's the best short cut to more money!
The medical lab tech should be happy to be supervised by a pathologist, because when market forces take over, it will become obvious that that the technologist or scientist is not in any way equipped to handle the situation.
I know, because I have first hand experience at both cadres. I graduated as a medical lab scientist in Nigeria, before going to school for 12 more years, now I'm a surgeon.
Medicine is like the big elephant surrounded by blind men, each man calling and describing the animal as a big fan, a big tree, or a big wall dependending upon where they feel.

Only the M.D has the advantage of seeing 'all of the animal' for what it is. The politician or the courts can only interfer for so long, but on the long run, the doctor is the only profession in the health care system that can integrate all aspects of the system for optimal patient care.

In the US, UK, and Australia, the medical techs focus on improving their quality control, system, and education, unfortunately in Nigeria things never go the right way. The med techs now think they can become doctors, fine, let them set themselves with so little education until it is possible to sue health care workers, then they would be easily sued. Also, the doctor is capable of running most of the functions in the hospital; from nursing, to pharmacy dispensation, to lab, to x-ray, the doctor has an education to do it all, and never vis versa.

Why should a med lab tech prescribe antibiotics without knowing the patient's full medical history?
It shouldn't even be a question in sane environments, but we're in Nigeria.

GentleMimi:
Listen to urself,Mr, Egostical,i work wif doctors and everyone respects eachother's profession.I will not bother exchanging words wif u b'cos it is obvious u're still fresh and inexperienced...hence the ''swollen'' head.But i promise u that u'll be put in ur place very soon.
If really u're a medical worker *not a dumb quack*,u'll know that a laboratory setting consists of a lab assistant,a lab technician and finally the lab scientist.Its obvious u're still in medical school,and still green on the ears.
And as for u telling a professional to shut up,come on...like seriously,u watch too many nollywood movies ooooo.Why shld a pathologist hv rights over other professionals who studied the course at B Sc,masters and in some cases,Phd levels.Nigerian mentality! allow others to be leaders in their field and stop encroaching! The fact that u realise power is gradually shifting frm ur hands has got u ppl jittery.Good riddance.
A student,and u're already thinking of how u'll tell a health professional to ''shut up''.You think u're better than every other health professional? U're on ur path to failure.Learn frm sucessful Doctors,they are humble and down to earth.You never finish school,u don dey swell up like puffpuff.Empty vessel.I hope that u dn't ever work in a teaching hsptl setting.It is people like u that are served as breakfast.

It's easy.
If you want to do what thet M.D does, simply go to somewhere called medical school, not to a confused court.
Those days in my medical school class, I remember we had medical lab techs like myself, nurses, pharmacist, enginners, social workers, teachers. People like you should be trying to get more education, not just sit there and say things you don't know.

Doctors are clutching on the last straw here...even judges are getting tired of their bullshits..
Pathologist heading medlab scientists
clinical pharmacologist heading ...pharmacists...ever heard that pharmacology is not a professional course rather is an academic course.
doctornurse..heading nurses; honestly doctors has lost their visions and objectives in nigeria.
In US, they fought against DO's and noticing it will be a long battle, they have to incorporate them. Sensible doctors in sane climates dont fight, they '' keep their friends close and their enemy closer''....no not for Nigerian doctors with that clown as their chairman. It is beginnig to bite you people in the butt.
Meanwhile, congrats to the stem cell transplant team.

naijaking1:

It's easy.
If you want to do what thet M.D does, simply go to somewhere called medical school, not to a confused court.
Those days in my medical school class, I remember we had medical lab techs like myself, nurses, pharmacist, enginners, social workers, teachers. People like you should be trying to get more education, not just sit there and say things you don't know.

Get over it,boy.If i wanted to do an MD course,i'd hv done it,but that is not the object of discussion here.I can see that u're living in ur fantasy world.Get an update on things happening in the health sector,b'cos things are gradually changing.Even if u call a medical lab scientist a med lab technician,it doesn't change the fact that the profession is free frm the clutches of doctors! Get over it ,as i said.Its a done deal!

@naijaking
Aha! So u graduated as a scientist and u go ahead to call them tecnicians.You see as u take dey reason?
Anyway,back to the matter.You stink of pride and a huge ego.Saying that a scientist should be happy to be supervised by a pathologist sounds childish to me.I worked wif resident pathologist when i was in the teching hsptl.Believe me,it was embarassing during their call hours in the lab.Most of the chemistry analysis by the doctors had to be rechecked by the lab interns.I really do not want to slander u guys.
As for a lab scientist prescribing medication...that is a huge lie my friend.What they do is carry out a sensitivity test to determine the most effective drug for a particular infection,hence aiding the pharmacist in choice of drugs dispensed.
So,my good friend,your chairman is in lalaland.Tell him to stop ranting.It is finally over,face ur profession and stop being a leech to other professionals.

na wa oooo.......wen would ol ds bullshit end? wel dat won't stop me from been a pharmacist in training dz yr......peace rily needs 2 reign within our health wokers if we want our health sector 2 move 4ward.

The case of most Nigerian doctors is like the case of one finger pointing at somebody while the other four are pointing at him. Most Nigerian doctors right from medical school see themselves as the alpha and omega, they indirectly see themselves as the key to human lives.With these foul mentality,when they finally graduates they turn to be like the Mr.know it all called NMA president. I still thank God for few of them that still realizes that they are holders of Bachelor of medicine and bachelor of surgery(mbbs) like other b.sc holders. I have decided that while still in school(Medical laboratory science) i will not hesitate to put any Mbbs student to his/her right sences when due, before he/she graduates to pollute the ailing Nigerian health system. Let every health proffesional respect the other. We need peace in our health system. Long Live Nigeria!

naijaking1: ^^^^
That is Nigeria for you.
People fight for the wrong reason, because they think it's the best short cut to more money!
The medical lab tech should be happy to be supervised by a pathologist, because when market forces take over, it will become obvious that that the technologist or scientist is not in any way equipped to handle the situation.
I know, because I have first hand experience at both cadres. I graduated as a medical lab scientist in Nigeria, before going to school for 12 more years, now I'm a surgeon.
Medicine is like the big elephant surrounded by blind men, each man calling and describing the animal as a big fan, a big tree, or a big wall dependending upon where they feel.

Only the M.D has the advantage of seeing 'all of the animal' for what it is. The politician or the courts can only interfer for so long, but on the long run, the doctor is the only profession in the health care system that can integrate all aspects of the system for optimal patient care.

In the US, UK, and Australia, the medical techs focus on improving their quality control, system, and education, unfortunately in Nigeria things never go the right way. The med techs now think they can become doctors, fine, let them set themselves with so little education until it is possible to sue health care workers, then they would be easily sued. Also, the doctor is capable of running most of the functions in the hospital; from nursing, to pharmacy dispensation, to lab, to x-ray, the doctor has an education to do it all, and never vis versa.

Why should a med lab tech prescribe antibiotics without knowing the patient's full medical history?
It shouldn't even be a question in sane environments, but we're in Nigeria.

Thanks for the post bro. God bless you. Unlike you I didn't wait to finish studying physiology before I went on to do medicine. And I've seen a thousand lab scientist go on to study medicine but never a doctor go on to study lab science. Same with nursing and even pharmacy, many leave this courses and go on to study medicine and after doing so a large scale leaves their eyes, they find out how myopic they were all the while. The bane of the health workers struggle is sheer greed and ignorance. Sooner or latter the truth will show forth. The doctor still remain at the core of health services all over the world and our health sector will be better once we all accept this and move on.

GentleMimi:
Get over it,boy.If i wanted to do an MD course,i'd hv done it,but that is not the object of discussion here.I can see that u're living in ur fantasy world.Get an update on things happening in the health sector,b'cos things are gradually changing.Even if u call a medical lab scientist a med lab technician,it doesn't change the fact that the profession is free frm the clutches of doctors! Get over it ,as i said.Its a done deal!

Go get a life. If you could study medicine you wouldn't be a lab scientist. No father will gladly accept his childs life ambition to be a lab scientist when medicine is there, moreover children in secondary school can easily tell u a docs job but not a lab scientist, the course name confuses them. Most people studied the course due to altered life ambition from JAMB failure or outright failure from medical school. Be proud of ur course and don't claim you could have studied medicine if u wanted to, its not possible. All my friends in Lab science all wanted to be docs or pharmacist and there's no exception and many of them went on to study medicine after graduating from lab science. That's the whole truth.

Rexsul: na wa oooo.......wen would ol ds bullshit end? wel dat won't stop me from been a pharmacist in training dz yr......peace rily needs 2 reign within our health wokers if we want our health sector 2 move 4ward.

Don't worry bruh.. The industrial court decides, I'm tired of all these arguments, PCN is going to court soon, facts would be put on the table and the court would decide. And ur admission is sure, just prepare well...

The NMA president is right about the physician being the head in a teaching hospital. I sincerely want to believe that there are no controversies in the health sector but no, there are. I could read it from the interview and from the comments above. And my question is 'what for?'. We are all working towards the same goal.
This is my experience, so many people in the medical profession, aren't practising based on some hippocratic oath, but for the money and the title with it. If only we would realise that we are all professionals in our fields, connected and dependent on each other, and not one of can do without the other (that's for sure).
Medical Doctors should see others as that and not subordinate, I thinks that's irrational.
Instead of us raining abuses on each other, we should instead brush up our skills and keep updated, because believe it or yes, Nigerians and others are becoming more enlightened and medico-legal practices serious. Health professionals are now sued for malpractices. So to those who mutter mumbo-jumbo to patients, in effect telling them nothing, and consider yourselves above the law, my advice, its time to up.
Finally, since the medical profession is only a practise, what makes you think MDs know it a lot more than the other professionals especially when its their field?, Mr seeing-all-of-d-animal.

dr_joshua2000:

Go get a life. If you could study medicine you wouldn't be a lab scientist. No father will gladly accept his childs life ambition to be a lab scientist when medicine is there, moreover children in secondary school can easily tell u a docs job but not a lab scientist, the course name confuses them. Most people studied the course due to altered life ambition from JAMB failure or outright failure from medical school. Be proud of ur course and don't claim you could have studied medicine if u wanted to, its not possible. All my friends in Lab science all wanted to be docs or pharmacist and there's no exception and many of them went on to study medicine after graduating from lab science. That's the whole truth.

Hahahaha.You sound angry and pained.You're really hurting! Too bad,cos u'll be hurting for a very long time.I definitely do hv a life...working in a peaceful environ and earning six figures.Life is good.Lol!
The medical doctor is a very important professional,no argument there.The main issue here is the fact that ur NMA president is being unrealistic.When doctors try oppressing other health workers,who in turn fight against such oppression,he cowardly goes to the press wif his tail btw his legs.He laments that health professionals are competing wif doctors.We all know that is a lie,and its not possible.You guys hv no minds of ur own,simply brainwashed by ur predicessors.
You mock people in other health sectors,claiming that they studied their course b'cos they failed JAMB You cn't be that dumb.(i hope not sha)
You cannot do without other professionals.Now,THAT is the fact!
And as i said b4,i cld hv studied medicine if i wished to.Rather, i chose to further my studies.The question i asked myself was ....why medicine? The answer was...to have a Dr. before my name.Do i hv a passion for medicine? NO.
So my dear,,some go into a profession b'cos its famous.Others b'cos of the passion.Doctors who go into d profession for fame and title get bored wif time.They think the can get excitement by being a pest to other professionals.Unfortunately,thats gradually changing.I hope pharmacists,radiologists,nurses and others will also stand on their rights like the med scientsts did.

GentleMimi:
Hahahaha.You sound angry and pained.You're really hurting! Too bad,cos u'll be hurting for a very long time.I definitely do hv a life...working in a peaceful environ and earning six figures.Life is good.Lol!
The medical doctor is a very important professional,no argument there.The main issue here is the fact that ur NMA president is being unrealistic.When doctors try oppressing other health workers,who in turn fight against such oppression,he cowardly goes to the press wif his tail btw his legs.He laments that health professionals are competing wif doctors.We all know that is a lie,and its not possible.You guys hv no minds of ur own,simply brainwashed by ur predicessors.
You mock people in other health sectors,claiming that they studied their course b'cos they failed JAMB You cn't be that dumb.(i hope not sha)
You cannot do without other professionals.Now,THAT is the fact!

Very true we can't do without others. That's all we should all know. The NMA president that I know never spoke to punch to disparage other profession, He's a good man. And what's up with the 6 figure, even a house officer earns that na. If we were discussing health we should have learnt a lot, but there's nothing to learn from disparaging others. Big ups to you your words are kind.

Osahon Enebulele.....you have shown the world once again that you remain a green horn on global healthcare matter. You talk like a kid who has refused to grow. This left me with one thing.....you have verbal diarrhea. Your inexperience is making NMA/Physicians to loss at a very fast rate the public sympathy.

I can see NMA is becoming frustrated and desperate having lost too many battle at the court. But then any right thinking persons should expect the current thread in nigeria health sector. You cannot place something on nothing and expect it to stand. NMA and its cohorts did built a castle thru the help of Olikoye Ransome Kuti that was destined to collapse.
The time for total restructuring is now.
Health ministers in developed world in UK, USA ,CANADA,Aussie are not physicians. Our physicians seems to know all. They want to be health minister, chief MD, chief matron,chief ordlies etc.
NMA president by his antics is busy beating physician out of relevance. He should also do himself a lot of favour by google our information b4 making invalid and archaic expressions. I was aghast that a physician can be this short out of best practices in the world and still come out arrogantly to the shame of his profession. With this un-informed physicians our nation is in real mess.

It is now crystal clear that NMA cannot win this battle given the thread in the world. They should conserve energy by trying to get use to the new down.

^^^Yes, they're going to lose one more case. That's the case that'll allow us run pharmD and put pharmacists in their rightful place in the hospitals. God help us, God help PCN, God help PSN.

You notice the Nigerian syndrome every where you look.
People openly fight for positions, responsibilities, and offices when they are neither prepared, gifted, and even capable of undertaking the responsibilities involved. If a medical lab tech becomes the director of pathology, can he read a slide, diagnose cancer, or combine the lab information with other patient information on the chart
In the US, some people shy away from certain political positions, because they're just not cut out for it. In Nigeria, people still think that political positions are the quickest road to enormous wealth, so they jump in, same with joining the customs, same with becoming a doctor, etc.

Unfortunately, unlike other positions you can get by making gragragra, a doctors job cannot be faked without deadly consequences.
There is no reason why a question should arise as to which profession is best suited to run the hospital when the doctor is the only one who has been trained in just about every aspect of the healthcare system. There is no money to share, so people who specialized in say medical lab technology has no basis to aspire to share medical decision making with a doctor who is trained in medical lab techniques, pharmacy, counseling, nursing techniques, radiological techniques, etc.
For every patient presenting to the lab, there are other aspects of her life outside the lab only the doctor would understand. Why is it difficult to understand?

naijaking1: You notice the Nigerian syndrome every where you look.
People openly fight for positions, responsibilities, and offices when they are neither prepared, gifted, and even capable of undertaking the responsibilities involved. If a medical lab tech becomes the director of pathology, can he read a slide, diagnose cancer, or combine the lab information with other patient information on the chart
In the US, some people shy away from certain political positions, because they're just not cut out for it. In Nigeria, people still think that political positions are the quickest road to enormous wealth, so they jump in, same with joining the customs, same with becoming a doctor, etc.

Unfortunately, unlike other positions you can get by making gragragra, a doctors job cannot be faked without deadly consequences.
There is no reason why a question should arise as to which profession is best suited to run the hospital when the doctor is the only one who has been trained in just about every aspect of the healthcare system. There is no money to share, so people who specialized in say medical lab technology has no basis to aspire to share medical decision making with a doctor who is trained in medical lab techniques, pharmacy, counseling, nursing techniques, radiological techniques, etc.
For every patient presenting to the lab, there are other aspects of her life outside the lab only the doctor would understand. Why is it difficult to understand?

Its easy to understand bro. Its just difficult to accept. The bane of the fight is greed and corruption. Let's save our breath and watch truth prevail.

@ naijaking,guy leave this matter.If doctors feel they're in the best position to head the whole health sector,let them prove that others are not capable.Your NMA president shld'nt hv gone crying to the news media.That is sooo juvenile.Why are u guys panicking?? Abegi!

adeola_drg:

Don't worry bruh.. The industrial court decides, I'm tired of all these arguments, PCN is going to court soon, facts would be put on the table and the court would decide. And ur admission is sure, just prepare well...

tnx 4 ur words of encouragement bro. cn u PM me ur numba plzzzz cos i think av gat 2 learn a lot 4rm u......tnx