Medical personnel respond to cases of misdiagnosis in health sector

Medical personnel and stakeholders have expressed worries and proffered solutions to cases of misdiagnosis of ailments, leading to wrong prescription of drugs or treatment.

The respondents, speaking separately with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan, Abeokuta and Ilorin on Saturday, also highlighted some factors responsible for the situation.

In Ibadan, the Medical Director of Ashamby Hospital, Moniya, Dr Muhammed Odedeji, said both medical and non-medical personnel could be careless or distracted in the process of discharging their duties.

“You should expect wrong diagnosis when laboratory scientists and students on Industrial Training start to gist with their friends while on duty at their laboratories.

“Definitely, this will lead to having a wrong interpretation of the result, which they would, eventually, send to the doctor.

“Also, being careless in maintaining and timing the machine being used in the laboratories can be a problem,” he said.

Odedeji remarked that doctors could also be negligent by overlooking details.

According to him, all the necessary tests and measures to treat a patient should be adequately done and examined by the doctor.

“For instance, when a doctor operates, he is supposed to tie the region three times. But when tied once, the sutures can later remove because it was done wrongly.

“When the patient bleeds inside and dies, a conduct of autopsy will reveal the cause, which is pure negligence on the side of the doctor,” he said.

The medical practitioner also underscored the need for doctors to interrogate their patients before administering drugs to them.

“This is because if a patient dies as a result of wrong drug prescription, the doctor will be liable.

“However, the problem in the health sector is multifactorial. It starts from poor funding and lack of interest by the government.

“The national budget for health is always very poor, so, there is the need to increase it.

“We have poorly trained medical personnel from some medical schools in the country, and many of them don’t have all it takes to be standard medical schools.

“They end up producing students that don’t have the experience. It is an issue that should also be looked into,” Odedeji said.

He emphasised that the use of obsolete machines/equipment could also affect the way doctors manage patients.

According to him, there is hardly classified modern equipment for doctors’ use in the country.

“Yet, the doctor has to do with whatever is available.

“So, this has led to many deaths.

“Doctors, in this context, cannot be held responsible for such.

“Moreover, poverty is making the people dodge paying the bills for quality medical services,” he said.

Dr Akin Fagbemi, the Chairman of the Oyo State Hospitals Management Board (OYSHMB), said specific situations should be addressed and investigated, with appropriate sanctions meted accordingly.

According to him, a generalisation statement will not be appropriate in a data-based 21st century.

“In this regard, the OYSHMB underscores the need for proper examination and investigation for every patient.

“Ward rounds with other specialists, morning reviews, grand ward rounds, scientific meetings, reviews and many more have to be employed to ensure qualitative healthcare delivery always,” Fagbemi said.

In Abeokuta, a former National Secretary of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Dr Adewunmi Alayaki, urged the Federal Government (FG) to increase budgetary allocation to the health sector.

Alayaki attributed the decline in the healthcare performance index largely to insufficient spending on the sector.

According to him, many government health facilities still make use of obsolete equipment and technologies.

This, he said, had largely contributed to the issue of wrong diagnoses and test results.

He says many private hospitals have better equipment just as they do not over labour their employees.

The doctors’ ex-scribe contended that Nigeria had exceeded the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended ratio of doctors to patients.

This, he observed, has been a major cause of exhaustion and overburden on medical practitioners.

“This can be a major factor associated with human errors being experienced in the facilities.

“Budgetary allocations to the health sector have not permitted practitioners to say they want to procure modern facilities.

“There are some equipment in some of our facilities that were bought in the 80s.

“They have to keep using the ones procured so many years back, unlike what obtains abroad where they change and replace equipment every two to four years.

“So, at times, you may have wrong results coming from those machines.

“That is why you see that some private hospitals are thriving more than the government hospitals,” he said.

Alayaki, therefore, called on the government at all levels to employ more hands in all its health facilities and increase budgetary allocations to cater for them.

According to him, when this is achieved, all health practitioners will perform optimally and effectively.

He added that the government should look for ways to make the job more attractive to practitioners who had set out to migrate to other countries in search of greener pastures.

“The government should do the needful and employ more personnel. They should also procure new and recent equipment for the facilities.

“More hands should be employed so that, even if we cannot meet up with the WHO standard, we will still be close to it.

“All these challenges can be surmounted if the government is alive to its responsibilities,” he said.

However, a patient at the State Hospital, Ijaiye, called for the release of more funds to all government health facilities to ensure subsidised healthcare for the common man.

In Ilorin, Dr Mariam Shiru, President, Association of Resident Doctors, University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (ARD-UITH), also called for the recruitment of more doctors.

Shiru observed that fewer doctors had continued to work long shifts, resulting in burnout.

According to her, doctors have continued to leave the country, leaving the huge task of healthcare to a few.

“This has increased the workload on the fewer ones left in the country.

“An average Nigerian doctor in a hospital works long hours without break, which promotes fatigue and burnout.

“This calls for the regularisation of working hours and provision of break periods,” she said.

Shiru advised the government at all tiers to improve and invest in infrastructure and medical equipment in hospitals.

According to her, maintaining the existing infrastructure can help to reduce errors and improve diagnosis accuracy.

The UITH-ARD president observed that regular medical personnel training and capacity-building programmes would also help in reducing errors and improving patient care.

“Establishing robust quality control measures can help detect and prevent the use of expired drugs, incorrect test results, and wrong diagnosis,” she said.