LAGOS – Stakeholders in the health sector on Wednesday said the unhealthy rivalry among different cadres of healthcare professionals had adversely affected healthcare delivery services in the country.
They said this in interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos against the backdrop of the country’s 54th Independence Day anniversary.
Dr Omojowo Olubunmi, the president, Association of Resident Doctors, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (ARD-LUTH), Idi-Araba chapter, said that unhealthy rivalry which culminated in incessant strikes could be resolved with a comprehensive health summit.
“The rivalry in the health sector is militating against effective delivery of healthcare services.
“It is high time in Nigeria we developed a system that is holistic in its application. This continuous rivalry and acrimony in the hospitals are uncalled for.
“The truth is that when you don’t have hierarchy and a system is not well organised; if everybody operates at the same pedestal, you are looking for anarchy.
“Everybody is important, but there must be structure; these are issues that need to be resolved once and for all.
“ I believe strongly that what we need is a clear, fair and well-oriented health summit where all the professional groups can come to the table and lay down their grievances.
“Then, we should have unbiased umpires to harmonise all these things.”
Also, Mr Kehinde Adegoke, the chairman, LUTH chapter of the Senior Staff Association of Universities Teaching Hospitals, Research and Allied Institutes (SSAUTHRAI), urged healthcare professionals to work as a team.
“The health sector that is supposed to be a team relationship has become a battlefield, that is the reason the health sector is losing a lot of grounds; services are going down because the team relationship is not there.
“The way the system has been run is such that other professionals have been made like second class citizens in their own team. [eap_ad_1] “It is not the generic right of any professional group to claim perpetual leadership.
“Any professional who claims to be able to deliver service alone, that professional is a quack, because western medicine is teamwork and the focus of the team is the patient.
“When the patient is not there, all of us whether doctors, or pharmacists or laboratory scientists or nurses, we have no business being there.
“Let us see ourselves as members of one team to attend to our clients and let us work together as a team. When we do that, health sector will be rebirth.” (NAN)
[eap_ad_4]
