‘Attitude, not underfunding, biggest problem in Nigeria’s healthcare’

A former Chief Medical Director of University College Hospital (UCH), Professor Abiodun llesanmi, says that contrary to the belief of many people, the attitude of health workers rather than poor funding and infrastructure was the major bane of Nigeria’s healthcare.

Professor llesanmi, in his guest lecture entitled “Resource Management in a Tertiary Health Institution: Practical Steps in the Face of Reality”, at the annual general meetings of the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN), University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, stated that attitude of health workers takes the first three positions wrong.” before other challenges like underfunding and lack of infrastructure, facilities and trained personnel.

llesanmi stated that the poor attitude of health workers was a reflection of what is happening in the general society though they were trained to show empathy, make patients comfortable and show some consideration for patients.

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He declared, “what we have observed over the years because of the pressure on them at times is that their attitude is not optimal. Attitude is very important; with a correct attitude, I tell you, about 50 to 60 per cent of the problem is already sorted out. No matter the money that you give, if there is a wrong attitude, the deliverables will be wrong.”

The don said healthcare services in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa remain the worst in the world despite decades of foreign assistance, noting that the state of health in Nigeria had been further complicated by increasing in- security problems

According to him, there is a compelling need to look into resource management in these institutions with the aim of strategising on how to manage and maximise the available resources, training and retraining staff in managerial roles and mitigate the current brain drain of all categories of health workers through better remuneration and improved conditions of service.

Earlier, Chairman of MD- CAN, UCH branch, Dr Olusola Ibiyemi stated that dwindling resources in the health sector is a global problem and now with the mass exodus of health workers from Nigeria, there was the need to look deeply into the best ways to manage available resources for health.

The meeting’s Local organising Chairman, Dr Gbolahan Obajimi declared that although Nigeria is a low-resource income country, limited resources do not translate into good service care.

He added, “having good customer services is not a function of resources, it could be small yet people can be pleased with us. The crux of the matter is to make sure that we have a happy set of patients and in doing so, using the very little that we have maximally, not wasting resources and blocking leakages.