The NMA vs JOHESU tumult has brewed over years and has now come to stay. Articles, opinions, comments and arguments have flooded the cyberspace. While many of these positions are enlightening, attempt to be unbiased (though authored by members of one of the warring parties), and put forward possible solutions, they seem to be barren of concise historical appraisal and what brought us to this point. Michael Crichton once said, If you dont know history, then you dont know anything. You are a leaf that doesnt know it is part of a tree. And only through proper review of the antecedents in the health sector and examination of claims can we resolve the crisis among health workers. In times like this, I wish I could listen to Prof. Asuzu to have a broader view of the current imbroglio. Yet, I believe these few questions might help one to understand the issues on ground and chart a way forward: 1. Is it universally agreed that the doctor is the head of the healthcare team? Why? 2. Are there health workers who feel disgruntled that the doctor should lead the healthcare team? Why? 3. Are there parts of the world that another health worker heads the team? If yes, how many are they? Why is that? How did they achieve it? Have they been effective? Do these happenstances necessarily make it applicable to Nigeria? 4. What are the confines of the healthcare team? Does it only mean the bedside or it also extends to the other aspects of facilities for patient care such as the laboratory and theatre complexes? 5. Does management of a hospital facility affect patient care? Why would a staff who is not trained in overall patient care want to manage a facility? 6. In the places that hospital facilities are managed by non-doctors, does their success mean that doctors are no longer the head of the health team? Does this mean that there arent other facilities headed by doctors? 7. In facilities headed by doctors, have there been cases of mismanagement and improper judgement? Have doctor-leaders acted favourably mostly for other doctors? Do these render all other doctors incompetent or make them less the head? 8. Have cases of management flaws by doctors been addressed over the years? 9. When exactly was the first incident of uprising against doctors headship? What were the issues and were they fully resolved? 10. How has the renumeration in the health sector been over the years in Nigeria? Have the other health workers been finagled? 11. Are they agitating for a unified salary scale for all health workers, irrespective of qualification and expertise? Where else in the world does this happen? 12. Have doctors connived and colluded with other health workers to jeopardize and ridicule other doctors? Is there any lack of respect for the profession due to official and unofficial interactions? 13. Have doctors been nonchalant and allowed other health workers to rise in the rungs of management? Would increased participation in politics better the lot of doctors? 14. If tertiary hospitals have directors of Administration who is not a medical personnel, why will non-doctors want to repeal a position that has been occupied by doctors? 15. What are the duties of Consultants Pharmacist and Nurses? Should they act on patients directly without the knowledge of doctors who the patient came to see ab initio? 16. If some health workers desire the title Consultant because they have been of service to the hospital and want to partake of the titular benefits, could the government increase their renumeration without proliferating the title? 17. What are the duties of the Surgeon-General and Minister of Health? Would it be more reasonable if one with the knowledge and experience of a doctor occupy those positions? 18. What are the incontrovertible international standards? How applicable are they in the Nigerian system? How can they be legalised to forestall future uprisings? These questions are certainly not out-and-out, but they may serve as starting points for the dialogue round table. They would also quell the hauteur riddled in the views of the biased supporters. Again, history and aetiology are vital to conflict resolution and George Orwell puts this in clear terms: The most effective way to destroy people is to obliterate their understanding of their own history. YM
Posted on: Sat, 05 Jul 2014 18:31:12 +0000
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