Nigeria’s Life Expectancy Rate: How High Cost Bill And Government Affect It
A graduate of Nnamdi Azikiwe University – a doctor and practising at a private hospital in Nigeria, Dr XYZ, while taking into consideration ethics, decided to keep her identity private.
She viewed our report and screamed “unethical” with a firm warning that she didn’t endorse it.
In order to protect her image, as the narrative was made without her consent, we decided to keep her identity off the internet.
Glamorous and stunning, she sat calmly in her office, a shiny skin, well creamed and nourished – the envy of many.
It’s a narrative derived from the many public pictures on her social media handles. This author had taken time to browse her social media handles, which gave him a glimpse of the narrative.
With a pointed nose like the tower of Palais Royale. Of course, it stood pointedly, more obvious than her lushed lips.
A glance will satisfy your soul. Even in her working robe, she still looked gorgeous and flourishing like a sunflower.
Fair complexion they say fits all faces, even the ugly finds atom of beauty in fair complexion. But when a beauty is fair in complexion, she becomes fairer than the first day of summer.
In anticipation of a team of journalists, she waited calmly with a subtle smile. No cameras, I informed her earlier, just a journalistic visit. This fiction captures her character.
We wanted to hear her opinion. She has been a sweet presence online. I barely had a video at her workplace that was seen. She takes into consideration the ethics of her job.
Most of her videos were those of a wealthy lady enjoying everything life has to offer. Often looks blameless and flying in the euphoria of happiness with reckless abandon.
She flouts and twists, quite far from the reflection of what is happening in Nigeria. She is filled to the brim, with astonishing sense of fashion.
Each video reminds the poor class of the high cost of bills in hospitals across the country. And further reinforced their decision to shun hospitals.
“She is a doctor. All the money they charge us is all over her,” the common man would say after watching her videos.
But she just left school. She is from a stable background. She has no hospital of her own, and she doesn’t call the shot in any hospital.
It’s entirely from a different place, not from her medical profession, that she makes her life so beautiful. She is a salary earner, just like the common man who feels victimised.
But the common man should not be blamed. The high cost bills across hospitals in Nigeria is a poisonous bite. He seems to play the victim any time he sees a doctor.
The effect of high cost bills has led to abuse of drugs, self-treatment, and reliance on chemist shops without doctor’s prescriptions. These are what contribute to low life expectancy in the country.
Across the country, chemists have become doctors and nurses. Chemist shops have become hospitals and laboratories. They barely refer patients to doctors for professional checkups and treatment. Rather, under pressure to offer solutions, they are forced to offer quack treatment.
“I don’t need to go to hospital, I prefer to go to Doc’s (name withheld) shop and he gives me drugs” Mrs Doris (last name withheld) says when approached to know how she often get medical treatment.
Doc. is a general name for a male chemist. Most of the chemists in her area are quacks. They barely had education or training but can administer drugs based on what they know or learn through unprofessional or quack housemanship.
“I have never been to the hospital all my life, I can boast with that. I am strong and healthy, ” she continued.
When informed that nobody is forever healthy and strong.
“I can only go to the hospital when I have an accident or when my sickness is too bad that I can’t work. Why waste the money I don’t have in a hospital? ”
When told, the money for medical checkups is affordable. She retorted with a mocking smile.
“If you go there, you will borrow money. Those people will see what they want to see, and the hospital bill is three years savings, ” she loudly retorted.
Nigerian life expectancy is well below 60 years, considered one of the lowest in the world.
The factor is clear, poor medical infrastructure and high cost bills across the country’s hospitals. The poor or average chooses to seek alternative medical help to evade high cost bills in specialist hospitals.
“The economy is bad. When the price of rice goes up, a doctor must balance his book. So, it’s wrong to put the blame on a doctor” Dr XYZ said, before pushing back “I should not do what makes me happy because I am a doctor or someone wrongly believes high cost bill is behind my happiness” she quipped.
“I have been a victim of high cost bill, precisely in Delta State. My wife took in, and I signed her to a particular hospital for antenatal. That was precisely in 2020. She registered with 15,000 and paid for all the drugs she was prescribed for for the six months period. When my wife delivered in the same hospital, I was charged more than 100,000” Another victim narrated.
His high cost bill happened in 2020 when Nigeria’s economy was better off. There is a question mark on the economy being the driving factor of high cost medical bills.
Dr. XYZ blamed the government for their lack of commitment to government owned hospitals. She noted that government hospitals are underfunded and under employed.
The situation of government hospitals gave private hospitals the opportunity to privately control billings.
“It’s because the public hospitals are overwhelmed with more private hospitals.” Dr. XYZ said was behind the high cost bill, “Government hospitals are unstaffed,” she added before “together with the general rise in living expenses,” she concluded.
The high cost of bills across the country has led to the proliferation of chemist shops in the country. These chemist shops are now alternative to high cost bill hospitals.
The implication of the high cost bill in Nigeria can not be overstated. It contributed to the dwindled life expectancy and numerous deaths in the country.
The government of Nigeria has barely done anything to address the situation. It has also failed to monitor private hospital billings in the country. It has also failed to invest in government hospitals.
To address outrageous high cost bills in Nigerian hospitals, the government must turn their attention to medical infrastructure, staff government hospitals, and subsidise drugs.
This will automatically bring down bills in private hospitals and discourage organised private hospitals association.
Private hospitals take advantage of unstaffed and dilapidated government hospitals, hence billing the public outrageously.
Life expectancy of the country will continue to decline unless the government gives attention to reinvesting in public hospitals across the country.
“I practice here in a private hospital, but our hospital bills are cheaper than government hospitals around. Most government employed doctors have private hospitals. They bill the same thing they bill at their private hospitals in government hospitals. Nobody is there to monitor what they bill you. It still works like private hospital. ” Dr. XYZ argued.
This also brings to fore the importance of the total overhaul of government run hospitals to meet the basics for the encouragement of citizens to check up and treat themselves.
To increase the life expectancy of Nigeria, the government must step in boldly and overhaul the medical system of the country – including in the area of practice, administration, manufacturing, and distribution.
