AN ELEGY DEDICATED TO MY DISTINGUISHED MEDICAL ELDERS (1)

The beauty of my noble profession is slain upon thy high places: how are the mighty fallen!

Tell it not in Nigeria,publish it not within any Nigerian tertiary hospital,lest the members of JOHESU rejoice,lest the biased Nigerian masses triumph.

After reading the communique signed by the former president of National Association Of Resident Doctors,Dr Jubril Abdullahi,after calling off the 55-day NMA/NARD national strike,what flickered through my mind was one of the quotes of Dele Giwa which states that,'no evil committed by men can go unpunished,if not now then later,if not by God certainly by men,for the victory of evil over good is only but temporarily.' Dr Jubril Abdullahi,judiciously narrated how our elders sabotaged the strike and at the end he was compelled to call off the strike after members of NARD were labelled as 'dissidents'. A noble association like NMA got divided internally and expectedly our experts in the government cashed in on that and exploited us to their satisfaction. Ever since then,I prefer being addressed as Mr Paul in any social gathering to being addressed as Dr Paul since the title has long been abused.

Expectedly,the first outcome of our divided house was the insult that our most distinguished colleagues received at a University Teaching Hospital in the north central .It was reported that immediately that 55-day strike was called off,my distinguished colleagues at the University Teaching Hospital went to work,believing that federal government would reinstate them immediately .As they gathered in the ward exchanging pleasantries with their colleagues, having missed their colleagues while on strike,some nurses in the ward who had been working with the resident doctors before the strike,started shouting that there were strange faces in the ward. My distinguished colleagues were labelled 'strange faces' in a hospital where their elders were heading .The resident doctors over there got the shock of their lives when the nurses invited the Chairman,medical advisory committee(CMAC) to come and see the strange faces,they were asked by their own elderly colleague to leave the ward and hospital premises pending when federal government deemed it necessary to reinstate them. What a humiliation ? The CMAC forgot that injury to one is injury all.

As the news was shared by my colleagues over there who are my facebook friends,I never believed it until resident doctors in my own centre were asked not to resume work by the management pending their reinstatement by our 'almighty' federal government .It took federal government more than a week to reinstate the sacked resident doctors. When I tried comparing our defunct strike with that of ASUU last year,I became confused because the ASUU members were so united that the president himself had to attend one of the meetings,going round to have a handshake with all the ASUU delegates present in the meeting. While our 'Almighty' president was having handshake with the ASUU delegates,he was 'cracking' jokes with them,possibly to lobby them to reconsider their position. At the end,they stood their grounds. Government tried using argumentum ad baculum,threatening ASUU members with dismissal but at the end,federal government failed woefully. ASUU delegates came out of the strike victoriously because they never allowed any agent of the government or their own individual political aspirations to influence their collective demand.

The second outcome of our divided house was that on resumption of work after being reinstated,the management of our hospitals who are mainly our elderly colleagues started paying us what they want to pay and at the time they want to pay. They are aware that we as an association have lost our power to embark on any strike again .They decided to deal with us first before non-doctors came in to complement their efforts .Lagos state government is currently being 'worshipped' by our NMA to pay my colleagues over there their salaries Lagos state government is owing them. Both our elderly colleagues and the government are aware that our noble association after the last show of shame called national strike cannot embark on any strike again,in fact if we ever think of it again,the public will lynch us. That means that it is either the government provides security for the striking doctors or that we will remain indoors,better still everybody may toe my path of being addressed as 'Mr'.The house officers who are frankly speaking not members of NARD are being extended by their elderly colleagues due to the strike they were forced to join for betterment of their noble profession. At the end,the house officers(the entry point of all doctors into the civil service) were compensated by removing their salaries from CONMESS(Consolidated Medical Salary Scheme) back to primordial CONHESS( Consolidated Health Salary Scheme) under the fatherly watch of our most distinguished elderly colleagues. After the strike,Some centers have been under-paying our resident doctors,even the so-called two months relativity,some centers are yet to get theirs. We seem to have finally accepted the natural Nigerian phenomenon,suffering and smiling,while resorting to our different prayers houses calling on God/Allah to intervene.

My most distinguished medical elders, our most graceful government has decided to compensate you for a job well done in our last nationwide strike by approving consultancy levels to all professionals in our tertiary hospitals .I nearly committed suicide when I first read the news last Sunday from different recognised national newspapers . I comforted myself that unless it was carried on the network news of RadioNigeria,that I would not accept it. I equally decided not to cry more than the bereaved. On my way to work this Monday,as I was listening to the said network news,that was part of the headline news. It dawned on me that we are finished in this profession. In secondary school,I was taught about 'Word Register' .The topic that deals with words and what they are associated with. With this recent approval ,it means that the medical profession in Nigeria does not have a title that will be an exclusive preserve of ours. When the title doctor is mentioned,it may mean somebody with PhD , honorary degree,a native doctor,a medical doctor,an optometrist or self-acclaimed doctors found everywhere in Nigeria. In my church recently ,a guest speaker refused to come out to preach in a crusade ,the reason being that the person that introduced him omitted 'Dr' in his name. On further inquiries,I discovered that the so-called title that made him refuse to come out to preach was gotten the usual way many Nigerian Pentecostal clergies got theirs. After pastoring school ,many of them will apply online and within six months the person is crowned with the title doctor.

These online foreign universities are more interested in your cash than any other thing. I cannot forget in a hurry the day my friend took me to The Catholic Institute Of West Africa(CIWA) Port Harcourt to visit a reverend father .My friend while introducing me to the Reverend father said ,'Father,this is my friend,Dr paul.' The reverend father jokingly said,' Abegi,don't intimidate me with that title,is he a native doctor,optometrist,PhD holder ,honorary degree holder,medical doctor,doctor of divinity etc?' We all laughed it out and considered it part of exchange of pleasantries but the real message has been passed which says that the title 'Dr' in Nigeria is ambiguous .In fact my own street neighbour,a herbalist,who I am aware did not finish primary school is addressed as Dr Oturuogbajie. It is a crime in Arizona state of USA to be addressed as a doctor when one is not a medical doctor. Now that everybody is upgrading ,it is time to upgrade to the consultancy level,our native 'doctors' will soon become consultants. Can the lawyers allow the title 'barrister' or 'lawyer' to be shared with any profession?Can the lawyers allow a professor of PARAlegal studies to either answer a lawyer/barrister or become chief judge/minister of justice?In our own sector,our PARAmedical professionals will convince our government that the posts of chief medical directors and minister of health are purely administrative.

Now that they have been recognised as consultants,is there any other title that is left for the medical doctor?When somebody comes to the hospital and says he is looking for the matron,chief nursing officer,chief medical laboratory scientist ,chief pharmacist,chief physiotherapist etc,will there be any confusion?The answer is no because these titles are associated with specific professions but with this recent approval ,if somebody comes to the hospital looking for a consultant,the next question will be ,is it the consultant cleaner,mortuary attendant,generator operator,ward maid,porter,security man,nurse,dietician,optometrist,physiotherapist,medical laboratory scientist,pharmacist etc. Also, for the term resident doctor ,it is a question of time,we will have resident cleaner,security man,porter,ward maid,mortuary attendant,nurse,medical laboratory scientist,pharmacist,physiotherapist,dietician,optometrist etc

The pilot scheme of consultancy level was fraught with a lot of disharmony .In Ibadan,it was reported that a consultant nurse refused a surgeon from examining the postoperative wound for a patient the surgeon operated upon, for no other reason than an 'almighty' consultant nurse had examined the wound. In Nnamdi Azikiwe Teaching Hospital ,Nnewi,it was reported that a consultant pharmacist came and changed the drug prescription of a medical consultant without first discussing it with the medical consultant even when pharmacists after manufacturing drugs will write,' if your symptoms continue after three days,consult your doctor.' In these two scenarios if anything bad had happened who would have been held responsible? I am aware of many consultants who were punished by the hospital managements because their own unit made a mistake,if we now have consultants in all fields,I hope not only medical consultants will be held responsible when anything bad happens? My most distinguished medical elders,always remember at the end of every ward round to send a consult to the consultant matron/nurse to see the new treatment sheet and to do the dressing, failure of which the patient will remain unattended to and if anything happens to the patient our own medical consultants will be the sacrificial lambs.

Watch out for the second part of this write up.
Dr Paul John
Port Harcourt,
Rivers state.
[email protected]
08083658038

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Articles by Paul John