Aladesesan Olaoye
The coordinator of the Late Dr. Tai Solari’s foundation and the man
who appears to be the one keeping the legacies, ideals, and principle
of the late social crusader alive today, Dr. Wale Omole has condemned
the state of the health in Nigeria, that all tiers of government in
the country are not serious to improve the standard of health.
Dr. Omole who has been in the medical practice for over 35 years and
who is the medical Director of Tai Solarin Hospital (T&S) Mushin and
Ojuelegba, in an exclusive Interview with Our reporter, after the
remembrance anniversary of Dr. Solarin in Lagos said that Nigeria is
doomed with the condition of health of the people because nothing is
being done by the government to improve the standard.
According to him, the health care delivery system of Nigeria is bad
because if it is good, the president of the country would not go
abroad for medical attention. He said those in power careless about
the health situation of the people because they know that they have
the money to fly outside the country for medical attention.
He frowned at the state of disrepair of our hospitals, especially
Federal and states Teaching Hospitals that is nothing to write home
about. He pointed out that, government hospitals in Nigeria are not
well equipped and they lack modern day medical facilities which can
make them compete with other government hospitals all over the world.
Coming down to the teaching Hospitals he said, ‘’ they all suffer the
same thing. They lack modern day facilities that are befitting of
teaching hospitals. You see in other climes of the world, their
leaders don’t go outside their countries for medical treatment because
they fund their hospitals adequately. You can imagine, the governors
who say they provide facilities in their state hospitals going abroad
for treatment when they have minor ailment which doctors in Nigeria
are capable of attending to. Doctors in Nigeria are better than some
of the doctors treating them abroad, but for the mere fact that they
already have the mindset that if they go outside the country they
would be well taken care of, they travel out with even the resources
which they should have used to develop their hospitals. Let me, however,
acknowledge this, Lagos state government is tying and I can say it is
the best I can see that is very serious about health care delivery.
Despite this, the state still need to improve on the standard already
set which is commendable.’’
He said that despite the money in Nigeria, the citizens lack good
medical attention, saying that if Dr Tai Solarin were to bed alive,
this is what he would have been fighting for because he awas a man who
wanted the best for the ordinary man.
On our environment, he said, Dr. Solarin was an environmentalist who
always fought for good environment and that was why you always see him
championing the cleanliness of our environment, removing dead corps on
the street and preventing environmental hazards which the governments
at that time were not prepared to do.
‘’The environment in Nigeria is the worse all over the world ‘’ Let us
face the fact; Nigeria has the worse environment in the world. Our
environment is so bad that even government that is supposed to take
care of it is lacking in its responsibilities. I agree with you that
if we have clean environment, the rate which Nigerians are falling ill
would be drastically reduced. The bad environment we have in this
country is also putting more work pressure on the doctors and other
health personnel. I can say that because of different kinds of
infections that Nigerians are exposed to as a result of dirty un
hygienic environment, a lot of money are spent on anti-biotic. Our
environments are unkempt especially our markets where the food we buy
are exposed to infections. Honestly most of the things we buy outside
are contaminated. Corn, suya, cucumber carrots, and water melons and
other food items are infected. If not the fact that we boil some of
them rate of infection could have been unpardonable. We are wasting
money on antibiotic, some of the anti-biotic cause kidney problem.’’
He dislikes the rate at which fake drugs come into the country, and
was of the opinion that, there should be a parallel regulatory body
that would complement the efforts of NAFDAC. According to him, this
new body should be purely pharmacist controlled by the pharmaceutical
society of Nigeria who would effectively monitor drugs being imported
to the country.
He also wants the government to if possible discourage importation of
drugs and encourage Nigerian Pharmacists to manufacture all the drugs
to be used in Nigeria. By this he said the s the central body of the
association would be able to control and ensure that no fake drugs are
manufactured and it would be very easy to detect any fake drug and
identify the producers of such drug’
‘’To me if this is done there would be no drug manufacturing company
that would want to put its name in disrepute by manufacturing drugs
that are not up to standard.’’
Dr. Omole condemned the government for not adequately funding the health
sector, stating that money allocated to the sector is grossly inadequate to take care of
the numerous challenges being faced in the country’s health
institutions.
On the health Insurance scheme, he was of the opinion that, only the
HMOS are benefitting from it. He argued that Doctors Nurses,
radiographers, medical science Laboratory technicians are not enjoying
what should go to them.