Still On The Proposed Privatisation Of Our Health Sector

Unarguably, our health sector remains the only sector with the highest number of industrial actions. Many lives have been lost in avoidable situations   owing to these incessant crises in the sector .In view of this, the current administration recently revealed its willingness to nip this intractable problem in the bud through privatisation of the Sector.

But some cabals benefitting from the pitiable  state of our  health sector have once again raised an alarm against such move by  the government.

I am aware that Satan will be surprised at some of the things happening in our country. Consider, for an instance, just recently it was reported that street beggars in Kaduna state were threatening to drag the state government to court for banning street begging and it was also reported that a fake doctor had the temerity of working, not even at the local or state government level but at the federal level in a country where qualified medical doctors stay many months at home before securing jobs.  Will the beggars not use the money they will use to brief their lawyers, to go and start petty businesses or are they born to beg hence they should not be deprived of their inalienable rights to begging? Our former first lady under these circumstances would shout,’ There is God ooo.’

Coming back to our topic, the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU), Assembly of Healthcare Professional Associations (AHPA) and their sister organisations recently opposed the proposed privatisation of the sector. As I read their joint communiqué, I remembered a song in pidgin English that says,’ No be you say you be oga, na why e dey run.’ By this their recent communiqué, it means that this group wants our health sector to remain in its present pitiable state. Is it not pathetic that surgeons in conjunction with the physicians will manage an unstable surgical patient and when the patient is stable to withstand surgical stress, one group will embark on a strike, so that after the strike, the patient will either be resting in the grave or be in the mortuary in preparation for the final burial?

Is it not preposterous that the same people that were shouting and quoting ‘International best practices ‘ are still the same people that are now opposing privatisation which is the foundation of the International best practices in any health sector? Top hospitals and universities in the world today are either privately owned or are run by public-private partnership. All the medical tourisms by Nigerians abroad end up in these hospitals run by public private partnership. Why are they afraid of public private partnership and why is Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) supporting the proposed privatisation of the sector by the  current government?

The answer is simple, under public private partnership, each of the professionals in the sector will be paid according to their inputs/skills and not according to their ability to either draw media attention by issuing communiqué or ultimatum on daily basis or form more unions in the sector.

Once the sector is privatised, all these unions will die a natural death, everybody will return to his duty post and face his assigned duty. At that point, we will see if an entrepreneur will agree to employ a consultant generator operator, cleaner, mortuary attendant etc and pay him/her consultancy allowances. At that point, we will see if pharmacists in our tertiary hospitals will continue being drug counters while more than 98% of the drugs used in our hospitals are imported and even those requiring reconstitution are done by private firms outside the hospitals. At that time, we will see if pharmacists in our public hospitals when embarking on any strike will lock up all the drugs in the pharmacy shops such that when they resume after the strike, majority of the drugs must have expired. Also, at that time we will know if medical laboratory scientists will collect samples from patients and later in the same day will embark on a strike, abandoning the collected samples.

Why are they afraid of public private partnership? They should accept the fact that people are supposed to be paid according to their skills and not according to their abilities to make noises in an organisation. Under public private partnership, I will like to see how a nurse that has direct contact with the patients in most of the times will earn lower than a drug counter in the pharmacy unit. They are aware that with this newly proposed arrangement, everybody in the sector will work out his/her salary. Until then, let me see a good entrepreneur that will appoint people without the requisite qualifications and experiences as the chief medical directors (CMD) because the post, as JOHESU will always argue, is purely  administrative .In our private enterprises we employ competent hands because we know that the quality of  our services determines our output and Revenue but in our government hospitals we want a cleaner, mortuary attendant etc  with O’level certificates, first degree or OND/HND  to head our tertiary  hospitals  in the presence of medical consultants  under the incessantly- abused ‘international best practices’ . I don’t need to remind the government on the need to retire senior army officers when their junior is appointed as the Chief of Army Staff.

I look forward to a day when clerical staff and other workers like accountants in the ministry of justice will be appointed as Attorney -General or Commissioner for Justice because as my JOHESU friends will argue, the posts are purely administrative and the sector is muti-disciplinary. Also, I will like professors of paralegal studies to come and head our ministry of justice as paramedical workers are advocating in the health sector. More so, the appointment of paramilitary officers from the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, Federal Road Safety Commission, Nigerian Customs Service etc as Chief of Defence staff will help to assuage my aggrieved mind after all, the post of the chief of defence should also be purely administrative as my JOHESU may also argue.

I know if I surf the internet I will definitely get few countries where civilians like me can be chief of defence staff, hence I will now parochially argue that such anomaly forms the fulcrum of our international best practices. I even wonder why a group has not come up to call for legalisation of same sex marriage in Nigeria under ‘international best practices’ since any anomaly observed in few countries abroad forms our international best practices. Meanwhile, as they called for international best practices, I advise them to openly accept this privatisation in good faith because that is the foundation of the much-touted international best practices.

Dr Paul John, a medical practitioner based in  Port Harcourt,  Rivers state, examines the rot in the Nigerian health sector and gives reasons why privatisation of the sector is the best option.

This article was first published by Daily Independent.