₦airaland Forum

dasparrow:
I have said it several times, the average Nigerian lacks empathy and compassion for their fellow human being. The average Nigerian is wicked and stone-hearted irrespective of their career profession. So Nigerian doctors are no different. They are a product of their environment. A dysfunctional environment where no one cares. A dog-eat-dog environment.

This is d most sensible thing I have read here so far.

A friend who graduated as a doctor recently came back to the country for the local exams and I told her my candid observations about Nigerian Docs and warned her all her training overseas will be a waste if she practices in Nigeria. She will develop the Nigerian doc attitude. She said she can't.

Most of these people here shouting doctors did this, doctors did that, go to their offices for one favour or to seek for information and see how they will make u look stupid and give u little or no respect/attention. The problem of arrogance cuts across every Nigerian, from cleaner to director. That's that!!!

When I think of Nigerian doctors and the health care system I don't blame anyone for travelling outside for treatment. You simply put your life on a Nigerian doctor or hospital at your own risk. Be warned. Go for simple headaches okay. The way some doctors look at a parient is discouraging. Confidentiality almost none

When I first started going to the hospital of recent and saw the young doctors at NH Abuja i was like . My child must be a doctor but after going in and out of the hospital like close to 2 months i totally lost all my admiration and respect for the Nigerian doctors. Sorry but its just how I feel.

I told myself and my doctor friend its either they are waiting for their application to work abroad to get approval or just unhappy with the job. Most matured doctors have other hospitals where they are committed to. I feel sorry for some of them but they should try and do their job with a passion and seriousness

Majority of the so called Nigerian doctors are full of themselves.
They act as if they are omniscient and I detest that disposition.
OP no mind them jor.

PennywysCares:
well I must say that the post is not longer enough as I was expecting, and that's one disappointment I got from you.
Secondly next time you wanna make a post like this, make it longer so that patient Nigerians, unlike the impatient docs you met in the Nigerian hospitals can read and let the topic be "My Grievances with Nigerian Doctors". But, permit me to remind you that most of those doctors you met in those hospitals you mentioned and others hospitals you might have assumed are not mostly paid their monthly salaries, their due allowances are what your Nigerian government don't give listening ears to unlike the abroad doctors you compared them.
This is Nigeria you must know, where human lives have less value including that of The Nigerian Doctors whose body you composed this 'Ode' to impress those whose hatred and bias for Nigerian doctors are heavier than horse can ride. something you must know is that someday the Nigerian doctors may no longer remain Nigerian doctors, but European and American doctors cos that's where the importance of doctors are valid and value.

1)You always visit the hospitals assumed to know the symptoms of your sickness even when you are yet to be diagnosed.[/] [b]2)You want a proper trained medical doctor to listen to the stories you have to tell than to carry out a proper diagnosis (as he was taught) to ascertain your conditions and what solution it requires. To you the doctors are impatient cos they don't spent a whole day listening to your complaints, leaving those in other wards and ICU dying. 3)Next you visit the hospital ask the doctor how risky his and work is in a Nigeria where security is at dust especially the northerner states where Fulani herdsmen are at rage, in the Southern states where cult war is at stake

I encourage you to write a letter like this you wrote to Nairaland to your federal Government of Nigerian, tell them the importance of doctors in the society remind them the poor standards of Nigerian hospitals, the non-payment of doctors salaries and allowance, the uncomfortable working conditions of the Nigerian doctors and more so the poor medical institutions of learning across the country Nigeria.
I make my sentences simple that internet wailers may understand.

Thank you

Sir, I'm not denying the fact that doctors in Nigeria have little or nothing to go by in terms of infrastructure and support(all round support)from the government. I listed some of these things you pointed out here earlier in my post. I called them 'anomalies'. And some of them aren't the doctor's fault. So trust me, I get what you are saying.
But the issues I have with them are of their own making.

@first bolded, in a bid to attack me personally and not the points I raised, you made a mistake. Please tell me, how else am I supposed to visit the hospital if I don't have symptoms of something. Is it now the doctor's work to tell me how I'm feeling? I have to have the signs & symptoms; the doctor has to have the diagnosis and answers based on these signs & symptoms I have and then the treatment. That's how it usually goes.

@second bolded, tell me sir, if the medical doctor doesn't have time to listen to my "stories", how else is he/she going to make the diagnosis you talked about? You see how you are contradicting yourself? How can a "proper trained doctor" as you put it not have time to know what is wrong with the patients he/she is seeing?

@third bolded, you gotta be kidding me! One quick question please, are all the medical doctors in Nigeria posted to the crisis-ridden north?
Besides, how ironic that you don't want "proper trained doctors" to listen to my problems(which is why they are there) cos they don't have time yet you want me to use the little time I have to start asking about how risky their works are(even those who are not at risk like the ones I visited this week in the east).

Next time, please don't attack the writer. Contribute meaningfully. And if you must express criticisms, do so constructively. Thank you.

We Nigerians always pride ourselves in being the best. Yes best for show but among ourselves we have an I dont care attitude indiscipline . We dont want foreign doctors or foreign workers but when we are given the chance what is the result. NH Abuja had foreign doctors in its glory days but since OBJ sent em packing Im told its na whom you know runs things

All these people quoting me and talking rubbish are silly.
This is a crap thread.
The OP is wrong and should admit it,
You visited a doctor in a government hospital where there is crowd waiting in queue.
You met one and boom he ask you few technical questions and book you for a test/scan or prescribe a drug for you,
What's wrong there?
You want to spend 30minutes in his office discussing what?
While many are waiting outside,
They are busy people, get that into your head
If a doctor diagnose you, and very busy to tell you what caused your problem,
You can google it,
Many people got the knowledge of what causes for instance Typhoid through google, they didn't meet a doctor for that.
About your symptoms,
He is not interested in hearing all, because some are irrelevant,
He will ask you the relevant ones, he was trained for that.
.
Am not siding anyone, am a well known johesu warrior here but let's call the right thing right.

What if it is that doctor that is covering many wards and while engaging in an "mbbs class session " with you, someone who needs his attention too dies, you will now be happy?
Hush.
Technology has demystifyed medicine, you can get a sound knowledge of any ailment online without nagging about a doctor not telling it to you.

eyinjuege:
If you need someone to talk to, get a therapist.
If you want a Dr to spend as much time with you, it's best you go to a good private hospital. They will give you your money's worth.
When you go to a government hospital, their clinic time runs strictly on schedule. They cannot afford to stay longer than necessary in clinic as they have other responsibilities in the hospital. They still have their ward patients to look after, they have presentations to present to their peers and to also learn. Even abroad, you will be lucky if you get 15minutes with your Dr, except in countries like the US/Canada where you actually pay for the time or your insurance pays. Unlike other countries in Europe where their healthcare is almost free.
In clinic, there are hundreds of patients waiting to see them, and you aren't the only one. I'm sure if the patient before you stays too long, you will still complain. and when its your own turn, you won't want to leave on time too. We all know once the time for clinic is over, they will leave. Do you want other patients after you not to be seen?

I think the OP's problem apart from the time factor is the attitude of the doctors and how they handle patients problems. Even if the health care provider is pressed for time, he/she can make that 10 minutes count by answering or giving the patient as much information as they can under that short period. You see even bankers are pressed for time, but most of them still attend to customers with a smile, that is called being professional. That they smile does not mean they'd do anything that the bank policy does not allow or make the customer a banking professional.

The doctors should try to demystify medicine by telling patients the drugs prescribed. I've heard a doctor not reveal to a patient the drugs they are given, the reason you may ask; so that they don't go and self-medicate!

Some patients are already afraid of whatever it is that is ailing them, a little proper bedside manner could help. Besides, if you are nice in approach, there is a high chance that you would get more information than you should've gotten. Like most people commented here, the same Nigerian doctors make the best doctors outside of here, why do most of them act the way they do here? Everyone has their own work pressure where they work, but everyone tries to be as professional as they can under the work condition. Also, I saw a nurse's ad once where they asked, "Are you willing to make a career out of caring?" The question is, if the doctors are not willing to make a career out of offering their services to the benefit of patients, they can always resign and go to a career that empathy and professionalism are thrown to the dogs.

AreaFada2:
1) The lady you quoted sums up the attitude of medical and other clinical personnel in Nigeria. A Victorian age attitude. However I met a young lady doctor once when taken ill in Nigeria. She was great. But then she knew her MD was a family friend of more than 20 years. Plus she knew who she was treating.

2) The MD is also one of theolder generation doctors that really take their time to illustrate disease/treatment using diagrams. Being trained in old-style Christian hospitals back then.

It makes one thankful for medical education in the West.

3) Empathy is now a big aspect of medical care. Listening skills are taught big time in communicating with patients from day one in med school.

4)Regarding an ENT surgeon becoming "jack of all trade" in private practice, granted, an ENT guy could have been a vascular surgeon, a general surgeon, Obs/Gynae or whatever and later retrained/specialized in ENT. That said, its worrying to see that happen in so many private hospitals knowing that they treat conditions in which they are not specialist. That is where MoH has failed and NMA and GMDC have put self-interest above public safety/interest. By not in tandem with Ministry of Health making such practice impossible.

I know of an Orthopedist who has done only knee & hip replacement only for over 25 years. He won't even do the relatively easy Dupuytren's contracture op. His expertise in Hip & knee became excellent in deed.

5) Sure as the lady pointed out, hospitals are busy and resources grossly inadequate. Doctors are stretching available resources, with attendant frustration that go with that. But that's not the only reason.

6)For many in Nigeria, medicine is about prestige. Many are pressurized by parents into medicine. Be be called Iya Dokita, Nma Dokita or Papa Dokita. For others it's a profession with better job prospects than most. It is not a calling for many. No matter how brilliant one is, doing a job that is not one's calling, you can never do it with much joy. That inner discontent is transferred on to patients.

7)The other is training. Emphasis is still only the academic and less on wholistic approach. Touted and mouthed but not properly done.

The other factor is we live in a harsh country. Like many third world countries. The general unfriendly attitude cannot just be stripped off outside the hospital gate. It's part of people.

Interestingly Nigerian doctors who relocate abroad adapt to their new medical environment/culture very well.

So we can do better. But not there yet.

I like your objective view to this issue.
You touched every aspect. But in all, your penultimate paragraph & the last one sums it up quite nicely. I numbered the paragraphs I want to quote to make it easy for me.

@paragraph 1,2 & 3, to say I was shocked @ what the lady said is an understatement. I said to myself "she's either a medical doctor or she has someone really close to her who is one". That's why she was so biased.
I specially like the words you used in patagraph 2, "taking time". Which is what I have been saying. You shouldn't enter a doctors office and come out frustrated than you were because you understood nothing & you were afraid of them to ask questions.
Yes, communication skills(the most important being listening skill) & empathy as you rightly said are very important for effective doctor-patient relationship.

@paragraph 4, why can't these doctors pattern a majority of the private hospitals after what is obtainable in government hospitals? They shouldn't treat everything. It's not right.

@5th paragraph, I actually feel their plight. Unavailability of standard equipment, under staffing, irregular payment of salaries and other benefits (civil servants ate being owed at least 6 months salaries in my state). These are the faults of the government.

@6th & 7th paragraph, they are the real cause of these problems we are analysing. Most of the time, parents who are doctors influence their children to become one with promises of an already secured job offer. So these people are just going to go through the motions of studying medicine cis there's a job waiting for them already not cos they have passion to save lives. Again, a friend of mine who's in the medical field told me that even though they spend more years studying their course than a lot of us, they will eventually "overtake" us financially when they start practising.
Also, the training approach. You have said everything there.

Finally, truly, Nigerian doctors who migrate to other countries brace up & fit in easily.
I don't blame them sha. It's good to be in a place where things work.

NoToPile:
It's a Nigerian thing.

An average Nigerian takes advantage of any one they seem to have a little edge over its mostly the young newbie docs that have this arrogant egoistic attitude anyway. All the doctors I have seen that have this attitude are still the ones at the lower part of the ladder still building up.

The one that wanted to burst my water during labor was rash, removed his gloves hastily and shouted that he will leave me for 4hours simply because I said he should let me calm down for some seconds before he did the stuff, I was stiff I needed to calm down, a senior doc came in asked what happened and then said calmly it won't pain, that infact he would do it for me all I heared was pim and I didn't even feel anything except the trickle of water.

Those consultants, attend to patients better and with professionalism, you ask questions they will answer you nicely. I guess experience has a lot to do in this. I have had a prof attend to my son at a teaching hospital and the experience was quite different, nice attitude despite the fact that he's elderly, listens to your talk and answers all your questions and it reflected on the other doctors working with him too.


All in all the ultimate is not to have anything to do with hospitals except when necessary (childbirth etc) especially govt hospitals.

True. It seems the older the better. The younger doctors are arrogant and mean. This is to tell us that we were getting it right before but what happened now? I think most present doctors are in the job for money, not for the sake of humankind.

MissJoy29:
Sir, I'm not denying the fact that doctors in Nigeria have little or nothing to go by in terms of infrastructure and support(all round support)from the government. I listed some of these things you pointed out here earlier in my post. I called them 'anomalies'. And some of them aren't the doctor's fault. So trust me, I get what you are saying.
But the issues I have with them are of their own making.

@first bolded, in a bid to attack me personally and not the points I raised, you made a mistake. Please tell me, how else am I supposed to visit the hospital if I don't have symptoms of something. Is it now the doctor's work to tell me how I'm feeling? I have to have the signs & symptoms; the doctor has to have the diagnosis and answers based on these signs & symptoms I have and then the treatment. That's how it usually goes.

@second bolded, tell me sir, if the medical doctor doesn't have time to listen to my "stories", how else is he/she going to make the diagnosis you talked about? You see how you are contradicting yourself? How can a "proper trained doctor" as you put it not have time to know what is wrong with the patients he/she is seeing?

@third bolded, you gotta be kidding me! One quick question please, are all the medical doctors in Nigeria posted to the crisis-ridden north?
Besides, how ironic that you don't want "proper trained doctors" to listen to my problems(which is why they are there) cos they don't have time yet you want me to use the little time I have to start asking about how risky their works are(even those who are not at risk like the ones I visited this week in the east).

Next time, please don't attack the writer. Contribute meaningfully. And if you must express criticisms, do so constructively. Thank you.

You have raised some good points. Thank you for raising these issues.

Amarabae:
Having gone through your post, I really don't see how the doctors you met offended you,
You came for treatment to be well and not for an interview class with the doc, there are crowd waiting also to be attended to.
If he diagnose you, you have a phone, when you get home, you browse about the issue.
Simple.
You should not be in hospital to count which health professional laughed with you, you should be there to get help and go

Please try reasoning before commenting, it helps a lot. Thanks.

Tellemall:
they do their best because they want to keep their jobs out there. In Nigeria doctors can get away with crude wicked behavior because they feel like society owes them for the years in medical school. So what if you detect CIN3 cells? It is your job to help cure the patient! Are you a doctor who can help or a rat who will simply watch and move on?

Just to correct your statement "It is your job to help cure the patient!". It is a Doctor's responsibility to 'treat' patient's conditions but using a stage 3/4 or any metastasized cancer as a case study, a 'cure' is not possible sometimes. In such cases, the doctor can only ensure that adequate care/treatment is rendered in order to make the patient as comfortable as possible. Not all diseases are curable, many can just be managed.

sirBLUNT:
like seriously? he did not offend her? OK,you walked to the doctor's and complain of some strange monthly blood and you asked why is that and he tells you some gibberish and say this is the solution without telling you the cause and hit the internet to know more...then why the hell is a doc?why not stay at home and hit the net if a doc cannot tell you what you need to know...nigerian doc's are one of the most arrogant and obnoxious set of humans always displaying their demi god braggadocio traits in every little chance they got,making the patient look like he's ignorant and worthless, i've been a victim of their arrogancy and pls we should stop encourage them for their stupidity

In which other countries have you attended medical examination or treatment to conclude that Nigerian doctors arrogance and Demi god attitude?

MissJoy29:
I just hope this writing will be able to adequately capture my frustration, disappointment & dissatisfaction with the Nigeria Medical Doctors in particular & the Health sector in general.
I also apologise in advance for the long post.

For as long as I can remember, I have always been sceptical about going to hospitals. The attitude of the health workers there are nothing to write home about. Both the private and the public hospitals. Even though I still believe that public hospitals are far better than the private hospitals(especially the average ones) in terms of quality service(although you run the risk of dying before you are attended to due to how slow they are).

There are so many anomalies in our hospitals. I have seen & heard really bizzare stuffs going on. From the nonchalant, impatient and highly unprofessional attitude of the attendants, the unhealthy environment, the cranky and harsh attitude of the nurses, the fact that there's also "who you know mentality" when lives are at stake, the subtle way they bill you unnecessarily by paying for almost everything you do in the hospital(consultation fee, file retrieval fee, unit fee, buying of this & that for your treatment that you will end up leaving for them), the lack of medical equipment, the walking up & down paying for one thing or another at different times(even when you are not fit)instead of paying at once,the number of unqualified & seasoned doctors, the location of a hospital's laboratory on the last floor of a three-storey building(like, who does that!!!!), the high cost of drugs and other medical supplies in the hospital's pharmacy as opposed to their cost outside etc.

But I have a particular area I want to focus on.

THE ATTITUDE OF THE NIGERIAN DOCTOR
This thread was born out of my experiences this week at a teaching hospital. These experiences brought back all the others I have had to push to the back of my mind a long time ago for lack of an appropriate channel to express them. For the purpose of this thread, I'm going to use my experiences at ABSUTH (Abia State Teaching Hospital), LASUTH (Lagos State Teaching Hospital), LUTH (Lagos University Teaching Hospital), National Orthopaedic Hospital Igbobi & few private hospitals as yardsticks to buttress my grievances. I'm also going to put into consideration, the attitude of my close friends who are medical personnels.

Note: I'm not here to compare hospitals. I'm only using them to show that the attitudes of the doctors I met there may actually be same(or at least, almost same) with all of them in the country.

Firstly, if I have met 15 medical doctors, only 1 turned out to be sympathetic and humane. Apart from my family doctors and this sympathetic doctor, I don't think I will ever recognise any of the doctors I have seen again. But after 5 years or so, I still recognised him when I saw him again recently at same hospital(and I have memory problems) Why? He was probably the first doctor I ever saw who actually listened cos they WANT TO not cos they HAVE TO. There's a big difference. Most of them just hear you. They don't listen & they don't allow you talk. That's why they ask you questions based on what THEY THINK you feel & not on what you KNOW you feel.

Secondly, these doctors (except my humane doctor) make it look as if they are doing you a favour when they tell you about your ailment. It's as if they want you to pay consultation fees before they explain in details what you are passing through. What am I saying? One actually told me that! Inasmuch as I think majority of them don't actually know their profession that well, I still wonder why they choose to withhold & hoard information. It's bad enough they don't tell on their own without being asked. But it's even worse they withhold when asked. I have recurring ear ache that comes like every 2 years. This time around I asked the doctor (on the advice of a friend) what the cause of the problem is so I can avoid it. And he opened his mouth & said to me, "get solution first. What do you need the cause for? I was stunned to say the least!
Thirdly, they are always very harsh & impatient. You come in to a doctor's office, 30 seconds later, you are out with a piece of paper filled with their illegible writing just cos they are more concerned with what they are scribbling based on what they THINK you are going through than on what you are actually saying. They are hurrying to see as many patients as possible to collect as much money from them as possible and also to go to their private clinics. So no adequate time allocated to a patient.

Again, because of the attitude of some of these doctors, I'm really not surprised why I detest private hospitals because majorly, they are still the ones that establish it. The main reason why I hardly go to private hospitals is because I don't understand why someone will be, say an E.N.T doctor in a public hospital, but will end up being a GENERAL practitioner in his/her private hospital. They are now automatic Ob/gyn, optometrist, dentists, surgeons, paediatricians etc. I can't count the number of times they have mistreated cases they are supposed to refer to specialists like professionals do.

After venting like this, I'd like to hear from the house. Knowing that people in the medical profession are supposed to be warm, humane, sympathetic, kind, friendly, patient, a listener, polite, knowledgeable, seasoned, capable etc, why then do you think most Nigerian medical doctors are cold, nonchalant, impatient, unkind, hard, rude, condescending? Is it because that's who they are normally or are there some things in the sector and/or in the training process that turn & change them into the aforementioned? Doctors in the house & non-doctors like me, over to you.

My sister had a near death experience with her baby at one of these private hospitals. She had just birthed a baby and she discovered that the baby's eyes were yellow and that it wasn't breathing normally which she reported to the Doctor. Then the Doctor told her it wasn't something serious so she was discharged a few days later. On getting home she discovered the yellowy eyes weren't subsiding and the breathing would not normalize, she was told to come back. When she went back she was told the baby had a hole in the heart and that they thought it would close up itself.
They had to fly the baby to India for surgery.
I'm not saying it was their fault the baby had a hole in the heart but they wanted to make profit at the detriment of people's lives. Of course they went back to the hospital and were billed separately from the previous consultation.

I will never support any doctor who doesn't treat his patients or their relatives right.
In as much as there's no justifiable reason for any Doctor or medical personnel to misbehave towards patients and relatives, some things have to be put into consideration. I will cite some examples from my own personal experience.
As a result of the very low population of doctors in the hospitals where I have worked, during call hours (between 4pm and 8am the next day), only two (2) doctors had to man the whole hospital; these same doctors that had been at work from 8am till 4pm that same day with their colleagues. There was definitely no way those two doctors could have been able to satisfy every single patient (and their was a whole lot in this case)! The doctors had to be at the casualty and all the wards at different times. Some of the patients and relatives that chose not to understand or probably didn't have the ability to even after explanations had bad stories to tell about the doctors while some understood. However, one thing every good doctor should know is how to identify which case is an emergency and treat them first while communicating his need to rest the right way. Sometimes, I had to excuse myself to take a few minutes rest once I cleared the emergencies.
There was this particular day that I had to be sent away by my senior colleague and the nurses because I had overworked myself and had begun to write nonsense down due to extreme tiredness.
The above is common in Nigerian hospitals, especially Government-owned ones.
I am a Doctor and despite all the challenges, I still try to keep things as sane as possible while keeping my health too in mind.
The problem is not always the doctors though, patients and patients' relatives are sometimes very rude and uncaut towards doctors and other medical personnel. Every profession has it's own bad eggs and I have been at the receiving end too.

taiwolomo1:
.....mumu

...is what you are

Amarabae:
Having gone through your post, I really don't see how the doctors you met offended you,
You came for treatment to be well and not for an interview class with the doc, there are crowd waiting also to be attended to.
If he diagnose you, you have a phone, when you get home, you browse about the issue.
Simple.
You should not be in hospital to count which health professional laughed with you, you should be there to get help and go

This is a bizarre response to the post above. The points he pointed out should be looked into by our health institutions. Professionalism must be adhered to, their should be no option to it.

Amarabae:
Having gone through your post, I really don't see how the doctors you met offended you,
You came for treatment to be well and not for an interview class with the doc, there are crowd waiting also to be attended to.
If he diagnose you, you have a phone, when you get home, you browse about the issue.
Simple.
You should not be in hospital to count which health professional laughed with you, you should be there to get help and go

this is very wrong. after consulting, you ought to inform your ur patients of your diagnosis and treatment plan (a five minute talk wouldn't take much). I notice most nigerian health workers re full of pride in carrying out their duty.

Amarabae:
All these people quoting me and talking rubbish are silly.
This is a crap thread.
The OP is wrong and should admit it,
You visited a doctor in a government hospital where there is crowd waiting in queue.
You met one and boom he ask you few technical questions and book you for a test/scan or prescribe a drug for you,
What's wrong there?
You want to spend 30minutes in his office discussing what?
While many are waiting outside,
They are busy people, get that into your head
If a doctor diagnose you, and very busy to tell you what caused your problem,
You can google it,
Many people got the knowledge of what causes for instance Typhoid through google, they didn't meet a doctor for that.
About your symptoms,
He is not interested in hearing all, because some are irrelevant,
He will ask you the relevant ones, he was trained for that.
.
Am not siding anyone, am a well known johesu warrior here but let's call the right thing right.

What if it is that doctor that is covering many wards and while engaging in an "mbbs class session " with you, someone who needs his attention too dies, you will now be happy?
Hush.
Technology has demystifyed medicine, you can get a sound knowledge of any ailment online without nagging about a doctor not telling it to you.

oh really? so illiterate patients would go online to understand their ailment abi? and if your treatment plan doesn't work out, u expect this patient u hardly had time for to return to you? this is also a major reason of patient's non compliance. when you meet a health professional with passion for the job, I'll know but in Nigeria, there re too many misfits. pple going into a profession for the wrong reasons .

eyinjuege:
You don't know the test she needed to conduct, so stop being ignorant. Because they removed her womb doesn't mean they removed her ovaries or her cervix.
She would have simply told the lab person she doesnt have menses anymore, and he would have done the test without a specific timing.
That's the problem with Nigerian patients, waiting to be spoon fed when information abounds everywhere. Why didnt you find out the test they asked her to do?
What if they wanted to confirm if she had truly entered menopause, before starting her on hormone replacement therapy to ease her postmenopausal symptoms?
Hope you know because you removed your womb, and no longer having menses doesn't mean you have reached menopause
The lab person doesn't know why they wanted the test, nor does he know she's removed her womb.

You have shown the problem with Nigerians,they always think everyone is ignorant .The hospital has a computerised system where all the staff who has access to the system can see the patients information online real time.It is clearly written that the patient does not mensturate,it is also clearly written that the patient has removed her womb and everything that has to do with ovulation or mensuration.

And to answer your question yes I know that the absence of mensuration does not mean a woman has reached menopause .The test she went for was to also determine if she has reached menopause since she has not been mensturating for over fourteen years and the doctors cannot just determine if menopause has set in.

Let's tell our self the truth the service industry is very poor in Nigeria ,regardless of the sector .I am in the service industry, I know I am also guilty of a lot of service goofs. That hospital we went to goofed big time. She engaged them the next day and they apologized .Please don't just jump on peoples mentions to defend mediocrity.

Have a lovey day ahead.

WinningSun:
in Nigeria we don't have medical records. a brief personal background will do as a substitute.

quit being ignorant.

Ignorant? Why do Nigerians feel they are master of all trades? How can you substitute previous medical records for clerking or taking case history? Good clerking is the first step of making diagnosis and this is different from personal background.
How will a patient come to you and the only thing you do is look at his personal background.
I wouldn't want to say you are ignorant but clearly you don't know jack about this.

Twoclans:
You have shown the problem with Nigerians,they always think everyone is ignorant .The hospital has a computerised system where all the staff who has access to the system can see the patients information online real time.It is clearly written that the patient does not mensturate,it is also clearly written that the patient has removed her womb and everything that has to do with ovulation or mensuration.

And to answer your question yes I know that the absence of mensuration does not mean a woman has reached menopause .The test she went for was to also determine if she has reached menopause since she has not been mensturating for over fourteen years and the doctors cannot just determine if menopause has set in.

Let's tell our self the truth the service industry is very poor in Nigeria ,regardless of the sector .I am in the service industry, I know I am also guilty of a lot of service goofs. That hospital we went to goofed big time. She engaged them the next day and they apologized .Please don't just jump on peoples mentions to defend mediocrity.

Have a lovey day ahead.

Again, i say dont be ignorant. Does it mean all workers in a bank have access to people's accounts?
Even if its computerised, the lab scientist / phlebotomist should have no access to the patient's records. That is what is called patient confidentiality. The application patient's records are kept should be secure, and no lab scientist (and definitely not a phlebotomist) should have access to your consultation with your Dr.
Even in developed countries, receptionist, lab scientists have no access to the records despite everything being on the computer. Nobody is defending mediocrity. Lab scientists/technicians also have certain questions they have to ask a patient before doing tests on them. It's as simple as that. If they dont ask those question, they would have failed their audit.
Your relative should have just answered the question. They may apologise in order to not make a fuss, and laugh at her ignorance behind her back but they did nothing wrong. It's just like a 65year old woman getting angry because x-ray people asked her when she last saw her period , and she knows she is in menopause. Guidelines and certain questions are put in place for a reason.
If you go to a hospital, 10 people can come and ask you the same question. It's to pick up things others may have missed, and to serve patient's interest at the end of the day.
It is standard practice worldwide.

MissJoy29:
I just hope this writing will be able to adequately capture my frustration, disappointment & dissatisfaction with the Nigeria Medical Doctors in particular & the Health sector in general.
I also apologise in advance for the long post.

For as long as I can remember, I have always been sceptical about going to hospitals. The attitude of the health workers there are nothing to write home about. Both the private and the public hospitals. Even though I still believe that public hospitals are far better than the private hospitals(especially the average ones) in terms of quality service(although you run the risk of dying before you are attended to due to how slow they are).

There are so many anomalies in our hospitals. I have seen & heard really bizzare stuffs going on. From the nonchalant, impatient and highly unprofessional attitude of the attendants, the unhealthy environment, the cranky and harsh attitude of the nurses, the fact that there's also "who you know mentality" when lives are at stake, the subtle way they bill you unnecessarily by paying for almost everything you do in the hospital(consultation fee, file retrieval fee, unit fee, buying of this & that for your treatment that you will end up leaving for them), the lack of medical equipment, the walking up & down paying for one thing or another at different times(even when you are not fit)instead of paying at once,the number of unqualified & seasoned doctors, the location of a hospital's laboratory on the last floor of a three-storey building(like, who does that!!!!), the high cost of drugs and other medical supplies in the hospital's pharmacy as opposed to their cost outside etc.

But I have a particular area I want to focus on.

THE ATTITUDE OF THE NIGERIAN DOCTOR
This thread was born out of my experiences this week at a teaching hospital. These experiences brought back all the others I have had to push to the back of my mind a long time ago for lack of an appropriate channel to express them. For the purpose of this thread, I'm going to use my experiences at ABSUTH (Abia State Teaching Hospital), LASUTH (Lagos State Teaching Hospital), LUTH (Lagos University Teaching Hospital), National Orthopaedic Hospital Igbobi & few private hospitals as yardsticks to buttress my grievances. I'm also going to put into consideration, the attitude of my close friends who are medical personnels.

Note: I'm not here to compare hospitals. I'm only using them to show that the attitudes of the doctors I met there may actually be same(or at least, almost same) with all of them in the country.

Firstly, if I have met 15 medical doctors, only 1 turned out to be sympathetic and humane. Apart from my family doctors and this sympathetic doctor, I don't think I will ever recognise any of the doctors I have seen again. But after 5 years or so, I still recognised him when I saw him again recently at same hospital(and I have memory problems) Why? He was probably the first doctor I ever saw who actually listened cos they WANT TO not cos they HAVE TO. There's a big difference. Most of them just hear you. They don't listen & they don't allow you talk. That's why they ask you questions based on what THEY THINK you feel & not on what you KNOW you feel.

Secondly, these doctors (except my humane doctor) make it look as if they are doing you a favour when they tell you about your ailment. It's as if they want you to pay consultation fees before they explain in details what you are passing through. What am I saying? One actually told me that! Inasmuch as I think majority of them don't actually know their profession that well, I still wonder why they choose to withhold & hoard information. It's bad enough they don't tell on their own without being asked. But it's even worse they withhold when asked. I have recurring ear ache that comes like every 2 years. This time around I asked the doctor (on the advice of a friend) what the cause of the problem is so I can avoid it. And he opened his mouth & said to me, "get solution first. What do you need the cause for? I was stunned to say the least!
Thirdly, they are always very harsh & impatient. You come in to a doctor's office, 30 seconds later, you are out with a piece of paper filled with their illegible writing just cos they are more concerned with what they are scribbling based on what they THINK you are going through than on what you are actually saying. They are hurrying to see as many patients as possible to collect as much money from them as possible and also to go to their private clinics. So no adequate time allocated to a patient.

Again, because of the attitude of some of these doctors, I'm really not surprised why I detest private hospitals because majorly, they are still the ones that establish it. The main reason why I hardly go to private hospitals is because I don't understand why someone will be, say an E.N.T doctor in a public hospital, but will end up being a GENERAL practitioner in his/her private hospital. They are now automatic Ob/gyn, optometrist, dentists, surgeons, paediatricians etc. I can't count the number of times they have mistreated cases they are supposed to refer to specialists like professionals do.

After venting like this, I'd like to hear from the house. Knowing that people in the medical profession are supposed to be warm, humane, sympathetic, kind, friendly, patient, a listener, polite, knowledgeable, seasoned, capable etc, why then do you think most Nigerian medical doctors are cold, nonchalant, impatient, unkind, harsh, rude, condescending? Is it because that's who they are normally or are there some things in the sector and/or in the training process that turn & change them into the aforementioned? Doctors in the house & non-doctors like me, over to you.

From your post



1) it's wrong for a medical practitioner not to tell you about what's wrong, the possible cause and what the management entails and especially if the patient ask to know then the patient has that right to know..

You could report such doctor before leaving to the hospital management


2) About doctors been sympathetic I must tell you that is a personality issue and nothing justifies a doctor or any professional been harsh..



Now lemme make you look at it from a doctors perspective



1) about been a general practitioner in private clinic.


Just know this, most doctors are not consultants(specialist) and even at the teaching hospitals most times you meet residents( those training to be specialist) or house officers (interns)


If Nigerians want to see specialist alone then Nigerians
Would have to share a few thousand doctors who are hardly available


Cases are referred to specialist only when it's beyond the capabilities of the doctor seeing the patient



2) about the time the doctor spends with you, you should also consider the patient work load...
The USA have over a million doctors and similar number also for Canada and uk and this countries employ them and they still complain of workload etc

Most of this countries are now relaxing their immigration and examination procedures for doctors intending to come in and practice from abroad

Doctors in uk staged a work out because of workload sometime last year too


You could verify all this from google


Nigeria since inception graduated now a little under 100 thousand doctors with over half of this number practicing outside the country

good majority of the remaining half are either not employed because the federal government claims they can't pay even the meagre sum (compared to even other African countries) they are been paid, some are not practicing and into business, lecturing et al as they need to provide for their families and some are dead


So imagine coming to a clinic with over 100 patients waiting for you, and over 50 admitted for you to see and then you still have calls to do that night( meaning at closing time of 4pm you still stay to work till the next day 8am and resume normal duty, nothing like off for you) that would be like 32 straight working hours and some days without rest or sleep....


This are the plight of some doctors and that's why they sometime are in a hurry to see you, because they is another patient somewhere waiting






The medical structure in Nigeria is terrible and it's unfair that you make a post like this to vilify the health professionals alone


Also she'd light on the work load, the lack of equipment, the poor and irregular pay, poor management etc


Also The fact that Nigerians really can't afford an ideal health care ( compare prices to those outside the country)



That would make someone understand that it's not always as it seems


God bless you and hope you make a more Comprehensive post another time

MissJoy29:
I just hope this writing will be able to adequately capture my frustration, disappointment & dissatisfaction with the Nigeria Medical Doctors in particular & the Health sector in general.
I also apologise in advance for the long post.

For as long as I can remember, I have always been sceptical about going to hospitals. The attitude of the health workers there are nothing to write home about. Both the private and the public hospitals. Even though I still believe that public hospitals are far better than the private hospitals(especially the average ones) in terms of quality service(although you run the risk of dying before you are attended to due to how slow they are).

There are so many anomalies in our hospitals. I have seen & heard really bizzare stuffs going on. From the nonchalant, impatient and highly unprofessional attitude of the attendants, the unhealthy environment, the cranky and harsh attitude of the nurses, the fact that there's also "who you know mentality" when lives are at stake, the subtle way they bill you unnecessarily by paying for almost everything you do in the hospital(consultation fee, file retrieval fee, unit fee, buying of this & that for your treatment that you will end up leaving for them), the lack of medical equipment, the walking up & down paying for one thing or another at different times(even when you are not fit)instead of paying at once,the number of unqualified & seasoned doctors, the location of a hospital's laboratory on the last floor of a three-storey building(like, who does that!!!!), the high cost of drugs and other medical supplies in the hospital's pharmacy as opposed to their cost outside etc.

But I have a particular area I want to focus on.

THE ATTITUDE OF THE NIGERIAN DOCTOR
This thread was born out of my experiences this week at a teaching hospital. These experiences brought back all the others I have had to push to the back of my mind a long time ago for lack of an appropriate channel to express them. For the purpose of this thread, I'm going to use my experiences at ABSUTH (Abia State Teaching Hospital), LASUTH (Lagos State Teaching Hospital), LUTH (Lagos University Teaching Hospital), National Orthopaedic Hospital Igbobi & few private hospitals as yardsticks to buttress my grievances. I'm also going to put into consideration, the attitude of my close friends who are medical personnels.

Note: I'm not here to compare hospitals. I'm only using them to show that the attitudes of the doctors I met there may actually be same(or at least, almost same) with all of them in the country.

Firstly, if I have met 15 medical doctors, only 1 turned out to be sympathetic and humane. Apart from my family doctors and this sympathetic doctor, I don't think I will ever recognise any of the doctors I have seen again. But after 5 years or so, I still recognised him when I saw him again recently at same hospital(and I have memory problems) Why? He was probably the first doctor I ever saw who actually listened cos they WANT TO not cos they HAVE TO. There's a big difference. Most of them just hear you. They don't listen & they don't allow you talk. That's why they ask you questions based on what THEY THINK you feel & not on what you KNOW you feel.

Secondly, these doctors (except my humane doctor) make it look as if they are doing you a favour when they tell you about your ailment. It's as if they want you to pay consultation fees before they explain in details what you are passing through. What am I saying? One actually told me that! Inasmuch as I think majority of them don't actually know their profession that well, I still wonder why they choose to withhold & hoard information. It's bad enough they don't tell on their own without being asked. But it's even worse they withhold when asked. I have recurring ear ache that comes like every 2 years. This time around I asked the doctor (on the advice of a friend) what the cause of the problem is so I can avoid it. And he opened his mouth & said to me, "get solution first. What do you need the cause for? I was stunned to say the least!
Thirdly, they are always very harsh & impatient. You come in to a doctor's office, 30 seconds later, you are out with a piece of paper filled with their illegible writing just cos they are more concerned with what they are scribbling based on what they THINK you are going through than on what you are actually saying. They are hurrying to see as many patients as possible to collect as much money from them as possible and also to go to their private clinics. So no adequate time allocated to a patient.

Again, because of the attitude of some of these doctors, I'm really not surprised why I detest private hospitals because majorly, they are still the ones that establish it. The main reason why I hardly go to private hospitals is because I don't understand why someone will be, say an E.N.T doctor in a public hospital, but will end up being a GENERAL practitioner in his/her private hospital. They are now automatic Ob/gyn, optometrist, dentists, surgeons, paediatricians etc. I can't count the number of times they have mistreated cases they are supposed to refer to specialists like professionals do.

After venting like this, I'd like to hear from the house. Knowing that people in the medical profession are supposed to be warm, humane, sympathetic, kind, friendly, patient, a listener, polite, knowledgeable, seasoned, capable etc, why then do you think most Nigerian medical doctors are cold, nonchalant, impatient, unkind, harsh, rude, condescending? Is it because that's who they are normally or are there some things in the sector and/or in the training process that turn & change them into the aforementioned? Doctors in the house & non-doctors like me, over to you.

@ the last paragraph, you already went to the hospital with a bad mentality so your write up is flawed. A doctor does what he needs to do and gets you out of the hospital. simple. you are going to the hospital for a mentor or best friend

funmisticqueen:
@ the last paragraph, you already went to the hospital with a bad mentality so your write up is flawed. A doctor does what he needs to do and gets you out of the hospital. simple. you are going to the hospital for a mentor or best friend

If that's all you understood from the post, thumbs up.

murphyibiam15:
crap...every sector is guilty from bankers to road side sellers

bro,what you wrote is actually the foundation of nigerias problem,ATTITUDE!!!!!!! The high illiteracy level in nigeria has affected everything,i mean everything.

Inricash:
From your post



1) it's wrong for a medical practitioner not to tell you about what's wrong, the possible cause and what the management entails and especially if the patient ask to know then the patient has that right to know..

You could report such doctor before leaving to the hospital management


2) About doctors been sympathetic I must tell you that is a personality issue and nothing justifies a doctor or any professional been harsh..



Now lemme make you look at it from a doctors perspective



1) about been a general practitioner in private clinic.


Just know this, most doctors are not consultants(specialist) and even at the teaching hospitals most times you meet residents( those training to be specialist) or house officers (interns)


If Nigerians want to see specialist alone then Nigerians
Would have to share a few thousand doctors who are hardly available


Cases are referred to specialist only when it's beyond the capabilities of the doctor seeing the patient



2) about the time the doctor spends with you, you should also consider the patient work load...
The USA have over a million doctors and similar number also for Canada and uk and this countries employ them and they still complain of workload etc

Most of this countries are now relaxing their immigration and examination procedures for doctors intending to come in and practice from abroad

Doctors in uk staged a work out because of workload sometime last year too


You could verify all this from google


Nigeria since inception graduated now a little under 100 thousand doctors with over half of this number practicing outside the country

good majority of the remaining half are either not employed because the federal government claims they can't pay even the meagre sum (compared to even other African countries) they are been paid, some are not practicing and into business, lecturing et al as they need to provide for their families and some are dead


So imagine coming to a clinic with over 100 patients waiting for you, and over 50 admitted for you to see and then you still have calls to do that night( meaning at closing time of 4pm you still stay to work till the next day 8am and resume normal duty, nothing like off for you) that would be like 32 straight working hours and some days without rest or sleep....


This are the plight of some doctors and that's why they sometime are in a hurry to see you, because they is another patient somewhere waiting






The medical structure in Nigeria is terrible and it's unfair that you make a post like this to vilify the health professionals alone


Also she'd light on the work load, the lack of equipment, the poor and irregular pay, poor management etc


Also The fact that Nigerians really can't afford an ideal health care ( compare prices to those outside the country)



That would make someone understand that it's not always as it seems


God bless you and hope you make a more Comprehensive post another time

You have made some valid points.

I know it's not the fault of the doctor that the hospitals are under staffed and they have to see a lot of patients than they can handle but it's also certainly not the fault of the patients and it won't be fair to take out the frustrations on them even though I know the tendency to do that is there. The doctor is there to make the patient feel better not worse.

Btw, you want to report a medical doctor? To whom? The hospital management? Where will you even find them because it's likely no one will point the "management" to you as they want to protect their own. Even if they do, what will happen? This is Nigeria for goodness sake!

Again, the time spent with doctors that I'm talking about is not gisting time. You don't need the whole day to explain to the patient what is wrong, the causes, prevention and subsequently, treatment. I have the right to that information as a patient & anything other than that is unprofessional. Some nurses don't even know the name of the injection they are giving you. You ask, they ask you why you didn't ask the doctor. You get the chance to ask the doctor, they ask you why you want to know. Isn't the most important thing getting healed? Like seriously!

I want us to be objective here. My post wasn't made to attack anyone. It's to find out why things are the way they are.

The ones that are in our power to do, let's do it well.
Thank you.

@MissJoy29.I agree with you on the above subject matter. That was how they allowed my baby die and said God called him. I was so annoyed and wanted to suethe consultant. Now the O and G consultant want to be a governor of the State.

However some of them are humane just few of them. My younger brother is an ENT specialist doctor. All the best.