How many people will go blind this year?

On Friday, January 20 in Washington D.C., Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 45th President of the United States of America. I wanted to attend the inauguration of President Obama eight years ago but I couldn’t make it after all the trouble I undertook to obtain an invitation and a pass.

But surprisingly, despite his anti-Nigeria rhetoric, DT has sent me both without my asking. Unfortunately, I can’t make it again this time. Why? When I woke up, I could find neither the invitation card nor the security pass. You don’t wake up from a dream to find things you dreamt about on your laps! They tend to disappear into the oblivion. I dreamt before about Obama’s invitation and then again this! But that won’t stop me from dreaming again and again!

Dreams often reveal insight into hidden desires or fears. Quite frequently, one may actually live out a desire in a dream. Dreams that predict the future are called precognitive dreams. When someone exhibits an ability to perceive events in the future or beyond normal sensory contact he is called a clairvoyant. I really can’t see much difference between a dreamer and a clairvoyant. I would rather leave that to the experts. Today, I am going to relate my dreams and perception of the future of medical services in general and eye care in particular in Nigeria in 2017 and beyond.

When Buhari/Idiagbon took over the reins of government in 1983, one of the reasons adduced was that our hospitals had become “mere consulting clinics”. During the Obasanjo regime, a lot of investments were made in the hospitals. Certain hospitals were designated centres of excellence and attempts were made to make them play their designated roles. Now, many federal and state governments’ hospitals have moved from being “mere consulting clinics’ to becoming mortuaries, where even the corpses are uncomfortable.

What do we have in store for Nigerian hospitals in 2017? I can’t see any ray of hope in sight. Sadly, many private hospitals will soon follow to become “mere consulting clinics” except the government does what it has done to agriculture to the medical sector – give soft loans to promising private hospitals to improve and upgrade their facilities to stem the tide of patients seeking treatment overseas; fund postgraduate medical education beyond the limits of government hospitals.

An investment of about $1billion in private hospitals will save Nigeria about $2billion dollars per annum. The Sovereign Investment Authority of Nigeria, in 2014, told the World Economic Forum that 30,000 Nigerians spend $1 billion annually on medical tourism. The number of patients going abroad since then have more than doubled and when the costs of overseas training of health and medical professionals (who come back to do nothing) are added, the real costs would be about $3billion.

These patients are not going to government hospitals overseas! They are all going to private hospitals. Isn’t it wise therefore for governments to give loans (not free money) to private hospitals to upgrade to the level these people can have their treatment locally instead of overseas?

I can see many more people going blind from glaucoma in 2017. Some will go blind because they have no money to buy the needed medicines or simply continue their lackadaisical attitude in using them. Others will go blind because they have refused to pay the mandatory yearly visit to their ophthalmologist for their eyes to be properly examined to rule out glaucoma and other blinding eye diseases.

I pray that those of you reading this will not be among the numbers. But there is a caveat, my prayers will only work for you if you do what is expected of you. Glaucoma usually creeps in quietly without any pain or discomfort and only announcing its presence when blindness stares one in the face.

In 2016, I saw a few cases of blindness caused by Apollo. Wait a minute! The blindness was not caused directly by Apollo but by the use of urine, battery water or breast milk as eye drops. This year, because of poverty and increasing illiteracy among our people more cases will be seen. In this same vein, there will be more cases of chloroquine-induced blindness owing to excessive use of chloroquine for the treatment of malaria.

The menace of cancer will increase in Nigeria this year. About 200,000 people will be diagnosed as having cancer and about four in five affected persons will die. By February 2017, not one radiotherapy centre will function properly in the country but hope will come from a private not-for-profit cancer centre which will commence cancer treatment by the middle of the second half of 2017.

This will be made possible from assistance received from one great individual. Federal and state governments are advised to team up with this organisation to ensure not only the reduction in the suffering of Nigerians, but the saving of about $350million which should have been spent on their treatment. The future of medical care is in the private sector. It makes sense to invest in the future.