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Experts at the National Orthopaedic Hospital Igbobi, Lagos (NOHIL) have proposed and encouraged a patient-centredness and empathy approach towards patients, especially surgical patients.
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They spoke at the 45th annual scientific conference of the hospital themed: “Overcoming obstacles to quality healthcare delivery for surgical patients” held recently at the hospital Pavilion.
A consultant plastic and constructive surgeon, NOHIL, Dr. Taiwo Osisanya, during an interview explained that providing healthcare is not all that matters but also ensuring that the healthcare that’s provided to Nigerians is of the highest quality.
Osisanya mentioned inadequate human resources and financing as the major problem in accessing quality medical care. He also added that the current economic crisis has made it more difficult for various levels of government and private sectors to finance the health challenges of their workers.
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He also talked about meeting patients’ satisfaction and encouraged practitioners to constantly practice self-auditing as well as audit the processes to order to minimize mistakes and ensure the patients enjoy the best of healthcare delivery and quality services at the end of the day.
“I mean, we’ve been shown that it is important for us to show a lot more empathy and be more patient. We need to be much more empathetic. We need to be much more considerate of the problems and challenges that our patients have,” he added.
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State Coordinator, National Health Insurance Authority, Ikeja, Dr. Bethuel-Kasimu Abraham at the event said that some of these challenges and obstacles are man-made while some are social determinants.
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He also mentioned finance and acceptability as obstacles and continued that some of the technologies involved in treatment are not acceptable to some persons.
Abraham referred to the cost of accessing surgery in the country as prohibitive.
“It is such that if somebody accesses just one surgery, and they pay for that surgery from out of pocket, it will surely impoverish their condition. And in Nigeria, a study has shown that about 65% of Nigerians are being impoverished by payment for health on an annual basis,” he added.
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