[Pixabay.com]
I don't even know which is our bigger problem, the sickness, the ignorance or the intervention.
Well, to be honest, I think all three work hand in hand.
Lemme be less vague, a person has an ailment, nothing too serious, let's say a skin lesion... the sickness... She's had it for over 3 months, more accurately, 6 months, but felt it would sort itself out... the ignorance... It's taken so long, said person is now worried and decides to seek help, walks to the nearby "pharmacy" and makes a complaint and is given medication. Said pharmacist probably has no formal medical education and is pretty much just a quack and prescribes "IM Procain"... the intervention.
This is real life! This is not a made up story for entertainment! How can a pharmacist dispense drugs without having an idea what they're doing?! It's maddening! To be honest, I don't even know how to solve this problem. It's so wide spread and rampant, it is in fact the normal in my motherland. There's no regulation of such a vital commodity, that health care has fallen into the hands of anyone with enough money to open a drug store, no regulation!
This fellow has a papulosquamous disorder, basically a dermatological condition which is usually treated using topical therapy, commonly topical corticosteroids. For a more severe case, systemic therapy may be indicated and additional drugs as well. The bottom line is, for the index patient, administration of topical corticosteroids would suffice.
Now, why am I so mad? The "pharmacist" gave the patient a vial of IM Procain. IM mean intramuscular. That means it is to be injected into the muscles. Procain on the other hand is an anesthetic agent. Do you see how unrelated the drug given is to the complaint presented?
Well, is that why I'm mad? Well, it's just the tip of the iceberg. She was instructed to mix the drug in 2 liters of warm water and drink. I just got upset all over again! . Why would anyone tell a sick person to drink an intramuscular drug? That could be poisonous! And why warm water?! So it sounds like you know what you're doing?!
The patient was about doing that before a friend asked questions and found out the disaster of an intervention! Now, it's written on the vial, "intramuscular use only". So, if this fellow had only read the bottle, this crime wouldn't have gone this far. This is where ignorance plays its part.
As I said, I don't even know how this problem would be rectified. Nigerians barely visit proper medical institutions, not until the situation is at its worst and these "pharmacists" realize they've taken enough advantage of he people's ignorance, then they tell the patients to go to tertiary health facilities. It's sickening!
How do I get the Nigerian citizen to come to the hospital rather than go to a "chemist"? In all honesty, it's not all their fault. Patients do spend an unreasonable amount of time just to be seen by the physicians when they finally decide to. I have heard patients complain that they've been at the hospital since 6am, yet, by 3pm, still unattended to. This is a major factor in pushing patients away from proper health care, let's not talk bout the financial burden.
Statistics have shown that the ratio of people to doctors in Nigeria is about 100,000:1. I kid you not! That's unreal! That's wrong! So how do we stop the loss of lives to substandard medical practices?
Lemme be less vague, a person has an ailment, nothing too serious, let's say a skin lesion... the sickness... She's had it for over 3 months, more accurately, 6 months, but felt it would sort itself out... the ignorance... It's taken so long, said person is now worried and decides to seek help, walks to the nearby "pharmacy" and makes a complaint and is given medication. Said pharmacist probably has no formal medical education and is pretty much just a quack and prescribes "IM Procain"... the intervention.
This is real life! This is not a made up story for entertainment! How can a pharmacist dispense drugs without having an idea what they're doing?! It's maddening! To be honest, I don't even know how to solve this problem. It's so wide spread and rampant, it is in fact the normal in my motherland. There's no regulation of such a vital commodity, that health care has fallen into the hands of anyone with enough money to open a drug store, no regulation!
This fellow has a papulosquamous disorder, basically a dermatological condition which is usually treated using topical therapy, commonly topical corticosteroids. For a more severe case, systemic therapy may be indicated and additional drugs as well. The bottom line is, for the index patient, administration of topical corticosteroids would suffice.
Now, why am I so mad? The "pharmacist" gave the patient a vial of IM Procain. IM mean intramuscular. That means it is to be injected into the muscles. Procain on the other hand is an anesthetic agent. Do you see how unrelated the drug given is to the complaint presented?
Well, is that why I'm mad? Well, it's just the tip of the iceberg. She was instructed to mix the drug in 2 liters of warm water and drink. I just got upset all over again! . Why would anyone tell a sick person to drink an intramuscular drug? That could be poisonous! And why warm water?! So it sounds like you know what you're doing?!
The patient was about doing that before a friend asked questions and found out the disaster of an intervention! Now, it's written on the vial, "intramuscular use only". So, if this fellow had only read the bottle, this crime wouldn't have gone this far. This is where ignorance plays its part.
As I said, I don't even know how this problem would be rectified. Nigerians barely visit proper medical institutions, not until the situation is at its worst and these "pharmacists" realize they've taken enough advantage of he people's ignorance, then they tell the patients to go to tertiary health facilities. It's sickening!
How do I get the Nigerian citizen to come to the hospital rather than go to a "chemist"? In all honesty, it's not all their fault. Patients do spend an unreasonable amount of time just to be seen by the physicians when they finally decide to. I have heard patients complain that they've been at the hospital since 6am, yet, by 3pm, still unattended to. This is a major factor in pushing patients away from proper health care, let's not talk bout the financial burden.
Statistics have shown that the ratio of people to doctors in Nigeria is about 100,000:1. I kid you not! That's unreal! That's wrong! So how do we stop the loss of lives to substandard medical practices?