phantom:

@ben, its a medical salary scale, where we dont have to fight for every pay rise.it comes automatically.it was started in '91 at the height of the brain drain and abrogated in '98.if we had followed through,a consultant should be at the same level as a chief judge earning about 1.5 mill a month,

AjanleKoko:

I hope you guys pardon me for posting here, cos I'm no doctor!

dr I:

Thanks beneli.quite on point.we need the likes of you to become the minister of health,or at least special adviser on health.Maybe Nigeria's health system would wear a new look.

dr I:
Your choice of specialty could even contribute to bring sanity in such an insane system.

beneli:

That sort of pay is very reasonable and should attract a lot of folks home once they start to implement it!

But honestly though, the government should not stop there. The problem with the Health sector is not just about the salaries. As has been echoed by a lot of people here, there needs to be a complete overhaul of the health sector. I am bold to say that we dont have a health system and have on many occasions sited our lack of a clear pathway of referal from primary care to secondary and tertiary care as one clear example. Perhaps those working in Nigeria might shed some more light on this but from where i am sitting, there's no clear demarcation between any of the levels of health service delivery in Nigeria!

Another problem, methinks, is the absence of any clear standards for health care delivery. Each health provider (private hospitals, general hospitals, teaching hospitals etc) seem to have their own policies regarding what treatment, investigations etc to prescribe. There should be evidence based guidelines accessible to the practitioner from the remotest villages to the most functional and equipped hospitals in Naija. Where there are no clear standards, there's nothing to regulate and nothing to aspire to. In the UK this concept is seen in terms of Clinical Governance, something that is fundamental to uniform and evidence-based development in the Health sector. Becoming competent in some of the tools of clinical governance, such as Clinical Audits, is an essential requirement for trainees in the UK.
See this link for more on Clinical Governance http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publichealth/Patientsafety/Clinicalgovernance/DH_114

The government should set up a separate body that is responsible for Clinical Governance and Excellence (along the lines of NICE in the UK http://www.nice.org.uk/), which would in addition to setting the guidelines and promoting good health, also be tasked with the role of ensuring that ALL health providers from the community level up to the teaching hospitals aim towards complying with these standards. 

There should be better regulation of the HMO's. Health Insurance is the future, if we are serious about universal access to health care. The government must be clear about the exact role of the private sector in Health service provision. The regulatory body must ensure that the private hospitals and HMO's are able to perform the role they are set up to perform. If they can't then they should either close down or 'consolidate'.

If the government stops at just increasing the salaries of Doctors, without putting in place the proper structures (not the 5-star hospitals and other such poorly thought through projects), then absolutely nothing will change for the service users and our health care will continue to be a joke!

Thanks for your contribution. I am sure none of us here have any reservations about you, or anybody else who is not a Doctor, posting here. We are all joint stakeholders in this Naija (lack of) health thing!

allycat:

In most countries of the world where there are great advances in medicine,the system is driven by private enterprise. Hospitals in America such as John hopkins, Mayo's group and Emory University School of Medicine are not funded by the American Government but by trust funds and foundations. Great Ormond street hospital in the UK is also funded not by the Government but by a Foundation trust. In India where we are all running to for treatment now, the hospitals doing all the medical miracle's are private enterprises. The same applies for most other countries except communist countries like Cuba where the government controls everything. And i tell you the doctors there are trying to get out too.
Where government is directly involved they provide basic health care and emergency services which are usually not profitable. The doctors in these hospitals are not paid anything special when compared to other sectors of their economies.
The business of government is to provide the enabling environment and regulatory frame work such as health insurance so that everybody can afford basic health care. Don't forget research, for medicine to progress there must be research going on and that is never funded by government. What we Doctors in Nigeria need to do is to stop waiting for government to do for us and start doing for ourselves.
Nigeria is in such a mess now that if we are waiting for government to start paying us jumbo salaries and super funding the hospitals we will wait for a very loong time. First let them give us electricity, running water, good roads, reduce the cost of bringing in equipment and stop taxing hospitals like hotels. The cost of running private hospitals will come down. Hopefully if that happens we will be generous enough to pass that reprieve to our patients.

allycat:

Good morning. Just joining this thread. I am one of those doctors that never tried to leave the country and now even if i wanted to I think I am too old. One issue I have with medicine and Doctors in Nigeria is our near total reliance in other people (government) for everything. A few years ago it dawned on me that the most progressive specialties in Nigeria have a strong private practice culture.The Ophthalmologist and Urologist are examples. In private practice they are doing laser eye surgeries here in Nigeria meanwhile some government hospitals are still doing cataract extraction without IOL's. Private urologists are doing Trans Urethral Prostatic Resections and getting paid well for it while teaching hospitals are still doing open prostatectomies. Private radiology centres have CT machines and MRI's and are able to maintain them even when teaching hospitals get them they breakdown and become none functional. Note that none of the industries we keep comparing our salaries to are government owned (oil companies and banks) if government were to run them (like most Tertiary hospitals) they would be worse off than we are.
Till we Doctors wake up and really realize that we are in the BUSINESS of saving lives and take our destiny into our own hands , I think we will continue crying and nobody will ever tell us sorry.
That's my take I may be wrong, but till proven otherwise that's what i believe.

allycat:

Medical care is not free anywhere in the world. Where it seems government pays, people pay taxes to fund it and the practitioners are always paid. Someone must pay either as taxes, insurance or cash. Better soup na money kill am even if the soup is health care. It is only in communsit countries that it is ever 'free' and go and read about the quality of care they get.

igbo-boy:

G'day to you all. Even though I am not yet a doctor,i have enjoyed this forum as i have learnt loads of stuff. I am a 300 level med student at NAUTH and i have a question. What is the benefit of having a DISTINCTION in any of your MBBS papers/e.g anatomy/? I heard that it gives you an edge in professional exams. Thanks[color=][/color]

igbo-boy:

G'day to you all. Even though I am not yet a doctor,i have enjoyed this forum as i have learnt loads of stuff. I am a 300 level med student at NAUTH and i have a question. What is the benefit of having a DISTINCTION in any of your MBBS papers/e.g anatomy/? I heard that it gives you an edge in professional exams. Thanks[color=][/color]

segun2k3:

is it really true that FG has finally signed the mss scale.? if so when was it signed and when is it going to take effect.pls anybody with good info should reply.thanks

AjanleKoko:

I hope you guys pardon me for posting here, cos I'm no doctor!

@allycat, it's difficult to discount the role of government for now, because there are no private medical colleges or specialist hospitals on a large scale. For a nation to develop, government has to provide the platforms in terms of enabling legislation, as well as basic infrastructure, not the situation we have now, where they have a stranglehold on everything and refuse to do anything, or even commit to the improvement of existing facilities.
I find it truly pathetic in the case of healthcare, because for now there are no hospitals in existence that can train doctors on a large scale, keeping in mind we are over 150 million people. Only the teaching hospitals are there, and you know better than I do the state of those.

Cheers.

segun2k3:

is it really true that FG has finally signed the mss scale.? if so when was it signed and when is it going to take effect.pls anybody with good info should reply.thanks

AjanleKoko:

I hope you guys pardon me for posting here, cos I'm no doctor!

@allycat, it's difficult to discount the role of government for now, because there are no private medical colleges or specialist hospitals on a large scale. For a nation to develop, government has to provide the platforms in terms of enabling legislation, as well as basic infrastructure, not the situation we have now, where they have a stranglehold on everything and refuse to do anything, or even commit to the improvthan I do the state of those.

Cheers.

vines007:

Hi am a Medical lab Scientist abroad, am looking to come into the country how can i registe with the nigerian council or how can they asses my qualification.

beneli:

@loser2,
Contact the Nigerian Medical and Dental Council via the following link http://www.mdcnigeria.org/ They're the ones responsible for licencing and that sort of thing, and should be able to guide you. It may be best to call them on the numbers provided on their website, as opposed to sending them an email.

Good luck!