THE HIPPOCRATIC LOATHE – Flicking the switch

“Declare the past, diagnose the present, foretell the future.”
― Hippocrates

When you step into a room and flick a switch, you either create light or you create darkness, in this quagmire of unnecessary dark rancor let us flick the switch and create light.
International best practice is defined as” A program, activity or strategy that has worked within one organization and shows promise during its early stages for becoming a best practice with long-term sustainable impact. A promising practice must have some objective basis for claiming effectiveness and must have the potential for replication among other organizations”, meaning we will adopt an already developed and proven process or strategy and make it our way of life, in short copy and paste, or we set a precedence of chaos and hope others will copy it as international best practice exported from us to them with love.
Internationally, every professional working in the health sector apart from Medical Doctors and Nurses are referred to as “ALLIED HEALTH WORKERS” who are support staff to the aforementioned, locally in Nigeria they are referred to as “JOINT HEALTH SECTOR UNIONS” (JOHESU) that comprises the bulk of the work force save the Medical Doctors.
When you or your loved one goes to seek medical attention from qualified and well-trained personnel’s, a machinery is set in motion around you, which comprises these support staff and the medical personnel. The record staff opens a new case note for you or extract one you used in your previous visit, he passes this case note on to the nurse, who checks your vitals and gets you ready in the consulting/examination room for the Medical Doctor.
The Doctor asks you series of questions, your answers direct his train of thought, with a few differential diagnoses at the back of his mind, he examines you, which helps him to remove from or add to the list of diagnoses, to rule in or rule out options from this list, he orders for tests ranging from Imaging, body fluids examinations to tissue examinations.
These tests are carried out in different locations by medical doctors / JOHESU members, E.g A radiographer in radiology department will shoot the x-ray as he was trained to do, he will then pass the film, after developing it to the medical doctor in radiology department, who is a specialist to interpret the “picture” appropriately as he was trained to do, this radiographer and medical doctor only knows of your radiological report. You then proceed to the laboratory as directed by the medical doctor in the consulting room to chemical pathology laboratory, medical microbiology laboratory and haematology laboratory, different specialist medical doctors and laboratory technicians in these laboratories will run your body fluids and blood samples as they were trained to do, the medical doctors will write the reports and send same to the medical doctor in the consulting room, the doctors and the laboratory technicians are only privy to the reports obtained in their respective laboratories.
After all these, you will go back to the medical doctor in the consulting room with the gamut of reports, which will help the medical doctor to confirm the diagnosis he had on his mind or which will point him in another direction, after marrying your clinical presentation to the laboratory reports, he will make his choice of treatment, you will get an appropriate prescription detailing name of medication (drug), dosage of medication, mode of administration, frequency of usage and duration of usage of the drug. This is passed on to the pharmacist who will dispense the drugs, identify each one for you, explain mode of administration of each to you, often at times you will have to go back to the nurse for the administration of some of the medications, or to the medical doctor and some will be self-administered by you in your house, after which the records officer files your case note appropriately for subsequent usage, at the center of your care is the medical doctor in the consulting room holding all the pieces together and seeing the big picture, he is connecting all the units to give you a diagnosis and ultimately treatment, no one has the right or training to play this role save the medical doctor. Spending donkey years at the medical doctors’ elbow or shadowing him does not confer on anyone by default the right to play this role, unless you go into a university to study medicine as a course and swear the Hippocratic oath.
Doctors are responsible for protecting your personal information and data, hence the parlance, patient doctor confidentiality and not patient health worker confidentiality.
National Medical Association was founded in 1900 in the United States of America, while the counterpart Nigeria Medical Association was formed in 1951.
Following WWII, healthcare needs and demands increased, the Allied health workers was formed in 1967in the United States to support the work of medical doctors which will allow him concentrate more on diagnosing and shedding some weights to the support workers.
In 1976 the medical and health workers union of Nigeria was formed, which is a precursor to the hydra headed unequally yoked body, dubbed JOHESU.
It is very easy to become a medical doctor anywhere in the world, just meet the admission criteria, in Nigeria, you have to beat the JAMB/UTME cut off point, which Is usually steep, at this point no one clamors for “score parity”, “equity not equality”, everyone keeps mute and follows their chosen paths willfully or fatefully, after 1 year of general courses with other departments, the workload of medicine thereafter is something light but it is not for the faint hearted, in 2 years you finish 3 degree courses, that have students studying them independently for 5 years, following which you cross over to the clinicals where you earn 2 more degrees in 3 years, all these makes up the super degree MBBS (actually 4 degrees in 1).
After the 6 official years in school, 1-year internship and 1 year mandatory service to the fatherland, a medical doctor chooses his path, either he works as a medical officer or enroll for postgraduate study/service (residency), this takes another 6 years on the average of intense postgraduate studies, at the same time you are offering your service as a medical doctor (you are a graduate with a super degree, remember?) to the center where you are undergoing training, this chimera confuses the uninitiated who will call you, a student doctor (what a display of paucity of adequate cerebral functioning), following passing the prescribed professional examinations you become a specialist, you have invested on the average 14 years of your life in knowledge seeking and proper education as a medical doctor.
Let us create darkness on the call for “pay parity”, “equity not equality”, which is double standard anyway, with the definition of international best practice still fresh on our minds, let us turn our searchlights to the medical “eldorados” of this planet, to save time and space we will look at UK and USA.
USA is officially divided into 9 regions;
NC – north central, GL – great lakes, NW – north west, SC – south central, SE – south east, NE – north east, SW – south west, W – west, MA – mid Atlantic,
we will compare the pay of medical doctors with that of pharmacists, optometrists and nurses (they are the highest paid JOHESU units) in these regions.

NB: Pay is average per year for the top earners across the states in each region.

MEDICAL DOCTORS
NW – $ 301,000 GL - $ 303,000
W – $ 290,000 SE - $ 297,000
SW - $ 292,000 MA - $ 282,000
NC - $ 317,000 NE - $ 296,000
SC - $ 300,000

PHARMACISTS
NW - $ 125,850 GL - $ 115,160
W - $ 136,730 SE - $ 117,690
SW - $ 118,360 MA - $ 122,230
NC - $ 113,720 NE - $ 125,680
SC - $ 126,460

OPTOMETRISTS
NW - $ 126,200 GL - $ 113,880
W - $ 115,260 SE - $ 107,200
SW - $ 93,340 MA - $ 127,940
NC - $ 107,360 NE - $ 140,880
SC - $ 118,950

NURSES
NW- $ 75,350 GL - $ 64,430
W - $ 94,120 SE - $ 61,780
SW - $ 97,040 MA - $ 58,760
NC - $ 56,350 NE - $ 60,700
SC - $ 66,350

These figures are self-explanatory, we don’t need a PhD in mathematics or accounting to see the obvious, let us move over to the United Kingdom (UK), this country is, made up of Great Britain, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. We will compare the pay of medical doctors with that of pharmacists, physiotherapists and optometrists in these regions.

NB: Pay is average per year for top and lowest earners (medical doctors) and top earners (JOHESU)

GREAT BRITAIN
Medical doctors
Consultants - £ 82,000
Private practice - £ 103,000
Public - £ 60,000
Residents - £ 40,000

Pharmacists (experienced)
All sectors - £ 50,000
Physiotherapists (experienced)
All sectors - £ 19,000
Optometrists (experienced)
All sectors - £ 44,000

NORTHERN IRELAND
Medical doctors
Junior doctors - £ 34,500
Consultants - £ 84,000

Pharmacists (experienced)
All sectors - £ 33,344
Physiotherapists(experienced)
All sectors - £ 38,077
Optometrists (experienced)
All sectors - £ 48,634

SCOTLAND
Medical doctors
Physicians - £ 67,317
Surgeons - £ 89,325

Pharmacists (experienced)
All sectors - £ 38,653
Physiotherapists (experienced)
All sectors - £ 30,000
Optometrists (experienced)
All sectors - £ 36,521

WALES
Medical doctors
Junior doctors - £ 35,000
Consultants - £ 84,641

Pharmacists (experienced)
All sectors - £ 39,417
Physiotherapists (experienced)
All sectors - £ 38,035
Optometrists (experienced)
All sectors - £ 42,147

Looking at what is being done in the land of the Queen that is attracting so many of well to do Nigerians, politicians and medical doctors, we can see without having a degree in mathematics one of the reasons why we flock that way, for your information, health sector budget in UK for 2018 is £ 124.7 Billion (# 1.7 trillion), another reason we take the leap.
This imbroglio has gone on for too long, we need to put an end to it, there is no where in Gods own world, that the proposed madness is taking place, this situation is taking its toll on all of us, we are Nigerians, we reside in Nigeria, we access healthcare in Nigeria, a group of people should not continue to hold us at ransom and be wasting our lives and the lives of our loved ones because of their own selfish immoral interests.
I am a medical doctor, I chose to be one, I enjoy being one, if I have a second chance at life I will be a medical doctor all over again, I will save as many lives as I can, that is who and what I am, I swore to the Hippocratic oath which you loathe.

DR FEMI OBAFEMI.

I wrote this because I was let down by those I look up to and I am pained right now because there is no reprieve.

Hi all,can I join u?

@poster, my advise to you,
there is a new trend now pips r running away frm toks stuffs,we r buying more of nu things,and if it will be toks not old at all,
so wats up wit u,toks or nu? and ow far along,we nid 2 kno cos u desired de best of de best in da flock, like u r some ang
el!!