The reality about most African public hospitals

Here is an example a toilet in an African public hospital

Dear friends, good morning to you all, today it is healthcare system the topic.I am writing this post in response to the African system where by whenever there is an issue or scandal with public hospitals, the easiest thing to do is to replace the director of the hospital rather than solving critically rooted problems created by the system put in place as a result of their bad governance. Therefore I am inspired writing it, as I have travelled to many places in Africa, and if you have too, you will have definitely encountered a hospital visit or two.

Having  lived in Africa and been a patient at both public and private hospitals, gave me a pretty good understanding of some of the practices and problems these hospitals face on a daily basis. And I have realised just how much is lacking in terms of facilities, medical equipment, education, organisation and professionalism within these hospitals. Personally I have witnessed varying degrees of uncleanness, patient confidentiality, sympathy and basic care with myself and or family members.

It is true I may not have a profound and elaborated education in the medical field, but as an English educated woman I feel there are basic things screaming out to me as I delve further into the Cameroon case study medical world . It is very easy to point fingers and blame the staff running these hospitals, but it goes way further right back to the government and its ability to educate and provide for these hospitals.

Everyone may  perceives Cameroon as an African country of success stability which in part it is; there are religious groups living side by side in an acceptable harmony, it is mostly a stable country politically if I am allowed to say that despite one president ruling for more than 30 years. And as compared to other African nations it has a reasonable economy with the middle class growing at a stable rate with more and more disposable income. However the part of Cameroon the world loves and knows only represent the tip of an iceberg of its reality.

Let’s now look at the things that are lacking in terms of medical equipment, education, organisation and professionalism within these public hospitals.

Firstly the equipment and organisation; why when a child is admitted to the ward are there very few mosquito nets in the children’s ward? Who is suppose to provide them? NGOs or rich person feeling sorry for the under privileged. The question is what is the government really doing with all the taxes they collect from its citizens.  These children already have a compromised immune system. Why are the equipment necessary to give blood transfusion directly not on hand within these wards? Is this a case of them not having the equipment, or is this the case of poor management and organisation within the ward? I should imagine probably both.

On terms with professionalism; there are no curtains surrounding the beds for privacy. When a patient crashes or needs and invasive procedure why are there no curtains to pull around the beds? Firstly for the other mothers in the children’s ward, seeing another child crashing and needing resuscitation is only going to add to their stress and worry for their own child. For the patient, especially more for adult patients, curtains are necessary as privacy when being examined by a doctor. Quite often  student doctors have been told very loudly by the staff, “This patient is suffering from this and this one from that” so all other patients and visitors around can hear. There is no patient confidentiality at all, a perfect example I witnessed: one man even had his scrotum inspected in front of all the patients and visitors in the ward.

Looking at education; in the United Kingdom, Ireland, France absolutely every single hospital worker at whatever level will be taught about CPR and basic emergency lifesaving skills. Are these lifesaving skills lacking because most of the staff in these hospitals were educated in Cameroon? Or that they don't know about this at all? I feel even basic skills such as washing of hands are areas that need attention. They should not only have posters all around explaining what are the expected hand washing protocols;but  this has to be an education and sensitising issue.

 What I have stated above, is not one person’s fault, it is a combination of several areas that need to be improved as a whole to give an overall better place of care to patients.

Abortion practices that would probably compare to those in the early 1900’s in Europe, with no anesthetic given or sensitivity to the women as a patient.

Wrong diagnosis’s of conditions and as a result wrong medication given out.

Non-existent pain relief for post operated patients.

Here is the worst one : An X-ray machine unable to be used in an immergency situation because the person trained to operate it went to another hospital and was never replaced. Lack of personels I must conclude; while many with qualifications and competence needed are out there without jobs.

This list could go on and on...

What I have evaluated is that all areas such as facilities, medical equipment, education, organisation and professionalism within these hospitals needs to be looked at.  However I feel the government need to step in and improve the education system of medical staff and through that, other areas such as organisation and professionalism within the hospitals will be impacted positively. Better Standard Operating Procedures should be designed and implemented in hospitals nationwide.

I also think starting with a basic ethics and lifesaving workshop for labouring pregnant women arriving hospitals for delivery would indeed have huge effect, the staff will be more confident in their skills, leading to correctly helping patients rather than looking around at one another in panic and put in money first. Also why not make health care for pregnant women free .