The poor work attitude of our health workers

The impact of the negative attitude to work by healthcare providers in public and private hospitals in Nigeria is particularly worrisome. Years of this, particularly in the public health sector, is endangering the lives of patients. Almost all of them are guilty of this. Nigerians seeking medicare daily face this worrisome trend even in times […]

The impact of the negative attitude to work by healthcare providers in public and private hospitals in Nigeria is particularly worrisome. Years of this, particularly in the public health sector, is endangering the lives of patients.

Almost all of them are guilty of this.

Nigerians seeking medicare daily face this worrisome trend even in times of life-threatening emergencies.

It does not bother them whether a patient is in the emergency section, routine doctor’s appointment, a laboratory test, or any appointment for that matter. The negative attitude seems to have become a way of life for many of them.

It appears sometimes our health workers tend to forget that they are in business only because of the patients. They waste the patient’s time even when it is apparent that he needs a reference to another facility.

It is unfortunate that in Nigeria, a patient is more likely to die of heart attack as a result of the despicable rudeness of health workers than from the ailment that brought him to the health facility.

Critical observers are of the view that our health institution  are losing their primary objective of providing care to the patient in favour of material gains.

Perhaps this explains why Nigeria records significant number of patients dying before they are attended to.

There is a need to re-orientate the health personnel serving in our public hospitals in order to save more lives.

Abdullahi Adamu can be reached through [email protected]