THE Association of Nigerian Private Medical Practitioners (ANPMP) says private hospitals in Nigeria are folding up due to the ravaging economic downturn.
It also revealed that the nation’s economic situation has forced several Nigerians into self-medication, resulting in organ failure and subsequently, death.
ANPMP’s Chairman, Dr. Odia Festus Ihongbe in an exclusive interview in Abuja, said that morgues were being filled up with dead bodies, while hospital beds were empty.
According to him, “People come only when it becomes critical and they just want you to do magic. And some want to die in the hospital, maybe because of confusion in their families.”
Dr. Odia revealed that Nigerians now Google their symptoms and buy “drugs from chemists until it gets to the terminal stage. “Sometimes, we keep them outside and issue death certificates because if you don’t do that, they will come in and dump the body in your hospital and say they are going to look for money for burial”.
Odia further lamented that private hospitals cannot afford to pay the N70,000 minimum wage recently approved by the Federal Government, owing to poor revenue.
He said, “How will the private sector pay the N70,000 minimum wage? “Meanwhile the private sector employs 80 percent of doctors and nurses and other scientists, so we are more in number. “If you have like eight to ten cleaners in your hospital, that’s already about N800,000. Who will pay that money?”
“We provide services to 80 percent of healthcare services in Nigeria yet the government does not show concern about developing the private sector.
“They do more lip service than giving us required attention. Whatever affects health, affects the private sector more. “You have to provide accommodations for your workers, pay salaries like any other businesses.”
He lamented that prices of essential drugs and hospital equipment have skyrocketed due to the forex crisis. “For instance, the oxygen machine that we used to buy for N25,000 some years ago, went to about N100,000 and we raised the alarm.
“Now the same machine is over N1.5 to N2 million. How do we survive it? These are even minor pieces of equipment. “Now, the interest rate in banks is something else and no bank wants to help us because it’s not a ‘sharp sharp’ business”, he lamented.
