Nigerian-Canadian United States-based nurse practitioner, Joy Austin, has stated that with intentional and innovative restructuring of the Nigerian health sector, healthcare services in the country could be on par with what is obtainable in the United States and Canada where she practices family and internal medicine nursing.
Austin − who also runs a health-care blog and provides medically-supervised weight loss services − made this known recently in an interview, where she spoke about her work, issues bordering the Nigerian health sector, and how she would solve some of the challenges facing the health sector if she were the minister of health.
The nurse practitioner lamented that Nigeria has many poor people who cannot afford health care and that many Nigerians are religious and superstitious people who believe that every misfortune, including health issues, is caused by witches or the devil.
Austin stated that if she were the minister of health, she would invest in a universal healthcare system, primary health care, preventative medicine, emergency medical services, and compensation of medical staff.
She also stated that she would invest in massive health literacy programmes and campaigns to create health awareness for Nigerians.
She added that affordable critical care and cardiac medicine are areas Nigeria is lagging, and that no nation on earth should be without adequate critical and cardiac care units, which she emphasised she would also invest in if she were the health minister.
She noted that, according to the American Heart Association, cardiovascular diseases account for more than 10 per cent of deaths in Nigeria, and 30.6 per cent of Nigerians have hypertension of which some are not aware that they are living with hypertension.
She said that people live long in civilised countries because of primary healthcare and that prevention is less expensive and more effective than cure.
“When a person encounters a medical emergency in Nigeria, it takes the grace of God for that person to survive as compared to countries like the United Kingdom, Canada, and the USA,” she added.
On why many Nigerian nurses are leaving the country for foreign countries, Austin stated that it is understandable that nurses should go to where they are valued and more compensated.
“The government needs to do better with health-care workers. They will not leave if they are well compensated. On the other hand, it will benefit Nigeria because many of the nurses who left may come back home to contribute immensely to the Nigerian healthcare system through the knowledge and skills they acquired while working overseas,” she added.
Speaking about her contributions to the Nigerian health sector, she said that through her healthcare blog and social media pages, she teaches about common diseases, symptoms, and management.
She also said she is working with some other healthcare practitioners on bringing affordable healthcare to Nigerians.
“We are starting with Benin City, where we already have infrastructure on the ground and preparing to launch,” she said.
