By Hope Nwawolo
Just like many forgotten cases, a young promising doctor, had her life snuffed out horrendously, in a Lagos state health facility. Not out of her own carelessness, not of what may be called a natural disaster but by sheer administrative carelessness and lackadaisical attitude towards government structures, which is predominant in many government facilities. It is high time, government at the different levels embarked on tours of their structures instead of waiting for the hues and cries that follow such avoidable accident and unwarranted loss of life. Any action taken after this is medicine after death.
No amount of condolences put forward or investigative panels set up to identify the causes of the accident can reduce the pain of the parents of Dr.VwaereOdiaso. Perhaps at the end of the day, no one would be held responsible for lack of maintenance of the elevator. Rather, there would be blames and counter blames from engineering/maintenance departments to the finance/accounts, if there was an approval of fund. If lack of fund was the reason for not repairing or replacing the elevator, the management may lay the blame on the government. If this is the case, would the panel be bold enough to point accusing fingers at the government?
Many of the government hospitals have been in existence for several decades and beginning to deteriorate due to lack of regular maintenance over the years. It is not unusual to see leaky roofs, cracked walls, broken plumbing, disgusting toilets and malfunctioning electrical systems. These infrastructure decadence, not resolved, can affect the safety and comfort of patients and their relations that seek quality healthcare. Sometimes the bureaucracy in governmentorganizations causes more harm than the good anticipated by its propounder, also called the father of bureaucracy, Max Weber. At the time he propounded it, bureaucracy was to allow people achieve high level of control and a way of guaranteeing consistency in decision-making.
However, bureaucracy in Nigerian government organizations is plagued by corruption and selfishness of the very people who should be looking out for the good of government property. These are civil servants who engage in unethical practices bydemanding bribes or engaging in other forms of corruption to expedite processes or provide services, which lead to inefficiency and lack of accountability. Many of them see stealing from government as partaking from the national cake and so their right. Therefore, contrary to facilitating decision making, there is usually delays in implementing necessary changes at the facilities. Sometimes, this is blamed on challenges in resource allocation.
The death of the young doctor is so heart-wrenching particularly for some of us who have our wards in the same profession, doing their houseman ship in one government facility or the other and who are set to complete the program in less than two weeks from now. Dr. Odiaso, unfortunately would not celebrate the completion of the program because some people did not see the need to ensure maintenance of the elevator in the facility she was being used to care for the sick. The pain of this for her parents cannot even be imagined.
Ordinarily, losing any child is an unimaginable pain that no parent should ever have to endure, not to talk of when that child happens to be a doctor. The loss carries additional layers of heartbreak that cannot be explained by anyone who had not worn the shoes before. As her parents, they watched their daughter grow, enjoying her dreams of becoming a doctor take shape and rejoicing in her accomplishments as she labored tirelessly to achieve her goals. They gave her all she needed throughthe years of education, sleepless nights and sacrifices to reach the pinnacle of her dreams.Alas, the young lady’s dream and the joy of her parents were abruptly cut short.
Like several past avoidable accidents and resultant loss of lives, the government has vowed to investigate the accident and bring all those culpable to justice. This is the usual anthem that hardly gets the conclusion of the matter. Despite the strike action called out by the medical body of the state, it may not take very long before the dust will settle on the matter and life goes on. Surely, not for the parents and family of the young doctor who will live with the horrific memory of the painful exit of their daughter and sister, particularly the echo of her plea that she did not want to die.
Moving forward, it is necessary to appeal to the conscience of everyone who is in the position of authority, place of work or service of whatever type (contract, maintenance, etc) to understand the importance of ensuring quality maintenance of every aspect of government facilities for the avoidance of unnecessary accidents and loss of lives. Sometimes, corruption is responsible for delay or lack of maintenance of equipment and structures in these facilities. The financial demands on the contractor by most of the employees (top to bottom) responsible to monitor or implement the process of maintenance, can be quite unreasonable and make him delay, abandon or carry out a shoddy job to get some profit from the approved fund. Failure to play ball might delay his payment or hope of getting another contract, with unexplainable reasons.
Finally, losing a doctor in such a tragic incident is devastating both to the family and the medical community. It is therefore necessary to attempt to assuage the pain by creating continuous open communication with her colleagues to share their thoughts and emotions. There should be transparency in keeping the affected parties informed about the progress and outcome of the investigation. The incident should also be used as an opportunity to reevaluate and strengthen safety protocols within the hospitals. This should include conducting regular safety assessment round the facilities, while ensuring members of staff carry out their official responsibilities accordingly.
Hope Nwawolo, PhD
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