A Father whom the baby is my patient being treated here in Federal Medical Centre Owerri, wrote this niece piece yesterday, and as a House Doctor/Officer we spent most our time next to these patients and their relatives, from wee hours of the morning through midnight & early hours of the next morning, House doctors are always there around patients & their relatives so I could really understand how he felt:

Hence the Father wrote thus:

My 6 days stay in the hospital taking care of family, has revealed to me more about the different shades of the individuals found there.

Doctors are at the top of the health chain. They parade the halls like gods. Patients almost worships them.

For their own good, House Doctors/Officers are willing punching bags of their Chiefs. They render great services. Patients admire them, yet wish they be handled by experienced doctors.

Nurses are the Amazons of the Wards, they are too influential and in charge there, barking orders like Drill Sergeants. Patients fear them, only the bold dare fight back.

Pharmacists are unknown and unseen. They are reserved and comfortable in their offices dispensing drugs. Patients have no opinion about them, I am sure no patient remembers a pharmacist's face.

Lab Scientists hate their jobs, they feel banished like Hades, always complaining how wrong specimens were packaged. Patients think they are unimportant for treatments start before results come out.

Orderlies are everywhere in their blues. They are a helpful lot. Patients harbour unkind thoughts about them and they are confused about their designation. They are seen as folks that will never be true Nurses.

Administrators are needed but bad ambassadors. They give hospitals bad name. Care givers regard them as slow, uncivil, rude and the reason for human traffic jam.

Morgue attendants are suspected to be in existence but nobody wants evidence of that. Those who know what they do and what happens there have forever sealed their lips bound by unknown oaths. Everyone thinks they must be ghostly and magical to do such jobs.

Student Nurses are pretty girls and they do what pretty girls do, which is to spread a breath of fresh air. Patients see them as nothing but students.

Patients are in their varieties and degree of cases. Hospitals were designed to solve their problems. Doctors see them as work, House Officers see them as living textbooks, nurses really do care about them despite the initial coldness.

Care givers accompany patients. They are responsible for running errands, payment of bills, and are devoted to the patient. Health workers see them as pestering & stubborn folks who wish the other patient is neglected so their own patient be given attention.
... Eze Ineh

Many times people say many bad things about health professionals in Nigeria especially here on nairaland without being duely informed..truth is no one is perfect even bad things have a good side of it but these parts are never remembered when people see Nigerian doctors. Most people think doctors are God that can save their ward even when most are referred to us terribly mismanaged by herbal medicine dealers & quacks, or when one has a single or multiple organ failure, most times such patients have poor prognosis and eventually die. Several other get well and back on their feet but doctors are never thanked for that. At least this piece comes from an enlightened Patient Relative a writer who sees things from an unbiased view. Not in any saying health professionals are infallible but when you are handicapped with no CT Scan, MRI, or state of the art diagnostic & interventional machines, in a hostile environment with some uninformed patient relatives raining curses, being crude in their attitude to you, And you still save 90% of patients that come your way especially here in Paediatrics FMC Owerri ... I think you ve tried
Well as of this morning the Author's child is currently doing well, made a remarkable improvement of which he is visibly excited about and may be discharged anytime soon.

PLEASE NAIRALAND MODERATORS you can move this piece to the front page so people can add their comments lets see how we as ordinary citizens could improve the quality of health care in Nigeria. Im open to any question.

PLEASE NO INSULTS, ONLY MATURED, INFORMED, REFINED REPLIES & CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM NEEDED.

Thanks