I am an Optometrist, a DOCTOR OF OPTOMETRY (OD). I am THE PRIMARY Eyecare practitioner which makes me THE FIRST POINT OF CALL in ANY situation concerning OCULAR HEALTH in any IDEAL clincal or hospital environment. I am an OPTOMETRIC PHYSICIAN, a specialist in Eyecare. In the eyecare industry, there are four PROFESSIONALS that make up the eyecare team, one can call them the Eyecare foodchain and they are: * Optometrists - Primary eye care practitioners, physicians * Ophthalmologists - Secondary eye care practitioners, surgeons * Opticians - Eyecare technicians * Ophthalmic Nurses - Nurses specialized in eyecare All these professionals make up the eyecare team and each has a well defined job description. As an OD, my scope of practice allows me to diagnose, treat, manage and care for patients who present with ocular anomalies which range from refractive to pathological conditions, it allows me to prescribe drug medications for therapeutic use. Also to refract and prescribe spectacle corrections, contact lenses, low vision aids and vision therapy to my patients. I can only refer a case to an Ophthalmologist when the ocular anomaly poses an imminent threat to the integrity of the ocular system and therefore requires surgical intervention. Of course that can only happen in an ideal clinical/ hospital setting which we all know that the Nigerian situation is not ideal, it has been bastardized and turned upside down by the lunatics in the NMA. Imagine that in Government hospitals, ophthalmologists see patients first and then send the patients to optometrists for refraction. Invariably, some of our colleagues in Government hospitals have been reduced to refractionists and that is totally unacceptable, it is injustice, a breach of professional ethics and an insult to the noble profession OPTOMETRY. Yet the NMA insists that professionals in healthcare should know and observe the limit of their job descriptions meanwhile they encroach into not just the optometric practice but some other healthcare practices too. So who is fooling who? In Nigeria, the NMA has created a dichotomy in the health sector and now we have the so called Doctors and OTHER HEALTH CARE PRACTITIONERS whereas in the developed world, the entire health care team is called MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS. The NMA, her leaders and her entire members have a God complex which needs to be curbed. They are egocentric, selfish, stupid and unreasonable, their demands are outrageous, annoying and depicts their lack of desire for growth in the Nigerian health sector. I studied 6years (7years if you add the long and incessant strike actions embarked upon by ASUU both at the local and national levels) in Optometry school which I can state with all authority is a lot more difficult and stressful than medical school. There are specialty areas in optometry such as pediatrics, geriatrics, contact lens, low vision, orthoptics, ocular health (Pathology) just to mention a few. Optometry runs residency programs in these specialty areas. Now my questions are: what do they have that Optometrists dont have even more? Who do they think they are? How does it concern them what other health care professionals are paid? Why should they determine what goes on in the healthcare sector? Why should they head all the units and departments in the hospitals when there are specialists in such areas? Enough is enough, something has to be done fast to deflate the bloated ego of the NMA and her members. The Nigerian Optometric Association (NOA) has got to take charge and make radical moves to ensure that these lunatics do not continue to pour sand into our eyes. This is with particular reference to number 24 of the trash that the NMA calls her demands. Also the NOA needs to align with other healthcare practitioners to fight this because it has become a witch hunt and for me, radical steps and decisions need to be taken to put a final stop to the NMAs total disregard of the Optometric profession and our sister healthcare professions.
Posted on: Sat, 05 Jul 2014 09:39:52 +0000
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