Hitherto considered as sanctuaries
and perfect destinations for those seeking relief, they have recently become
the best place to go and die, after you must have paid that is.
A few months ago, a good friend
of mine precautionarily went to a state –run health facility here in Buea for
consultation: Note, I didn’t call names, I simply said ‘state-run health
facility’. He was uncomfortable with the unexplained peeling of skin on his
feet. The lady who received him prescribed him some drugs which he dutifully
bought and starting taking as soon as he got home. But to his greatest dismay,
he started having a thumping sensation in his head as if he was having 1000
headaches simultaneously. He sought the opinion of my junior brother who is
M.sc Microbiology student, so somewhat capable of understanding the purpose of
some ingredients that go into manufacturing drugs. After reading the leaflet,
my junior brother told him he had reservations about the appropriately of that
drug for my friend. Unfortunately my friend understandably brushed aside my
junior brother’s fears, after he wasn’t no doctor, was he? That evening again,
my friend took the drug again before going to bed and by the next morning the symptoms
he complained of earlier had worsened. He rushed to the hospital and met different
health personnel on seat. Note that I have decided to say health personnel
because I am finding it hard to believe those he met were actually 5 years+
formally trained doctors. After he unscrolled his situation, the man in
question asked him who and where the drugs had he taking been prescribed. My
friend was shocked and to be shocked even further as the health personnel told
him he had been prescribed drugs meant for high-blood patients. I would have
given you the name of the drug but when I called my friend yesterday to find
out before writing this post, he asked me if I asking about the drug that
almost killed him and said he had thrown away that particular hospital booklet.
You may be tempted
to think situations such as above only occur in small, rurally - set
health-dispensing structures but no. our so-called reference and big hospitals aren’t
any different. Remember the Vanessa Tchatchou saga at the Yaounde
Gynaeco-Obstetrics and Paediatrics Hospital where a teenage mother’s baby was
stolen from the incubator. Even the dead aren’t safe in our hospital units.
Remember the October 2012 scandal at the Laquintinie Hospital in Douala where
mortuary attendants were suspended after the corpse of a student Franck Nguekam
had been mutilated. Sure these are isolated incidents and somebody would ask why
we are quick to headline the shortcomings of health workers and only whisper
their exploits and they’d be right. Unfortunately we must not wait for the
whole village to die before we have an inquisitorial and why not prosecutorial
interest in the output of our health workers and institutions.
The under- the- par
nature of our health service are sure the result of our ‘developing’ status but
not everything can be blamed on it. That said, what options are patients left
with in the face of the increasing unreliability of health care providers?
Traditional doctors? Those folk aren’t any better and have become a hideout for
scoundrels. Religious healers? Our science – oriented society bids us
otherwise. So it seems that the best option in the face of conjuring, silver-minded
and poorly-trained health care providers as well as infrastructure - deprived
health care institutions is stay at home and self medicate when sick?
Unfortunately our ever so unreliable reason won't let us go down this path. So
the next time you’re sick, you’ll just have to go to the best place for dying:
hospitals. You’ll just have to take your life and leave it in the hands of a
guess doctor and his/her artistic nurse. You’ll just have to hope they’re
giving you the right drug. And in case you still die, you’ll just have to pray
the mortuary attendant isn’t the best human spare part dealer.
P/S:
Did say I even mission hospitals aren’t left out?
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