Healthcare industry in Nigeria was adversely impacted by covid19 pandemic. This led to poor medical service delivery in Nigeria today. By the time this system began to recover, the global economic crisis created by Russia Ukraine war and global energy crisis inflicted this sector with a new sets of attacks that have made it impossible for an average Nigeria to access prompt basic healthcare.

Primary health centers in various localities in Nigeria meant to serve as the first and immediate point of healthcare delivery are poorly equipped and cannot proffer necessary medical assistance during the pandemic. Nothing has changed after the pandemic as our primary health centers have continued to attract poor to zero funding, unavailability of basic required medical equipment and instruments, drugs, basic utility. This in turn have increased the pressure on the secondary and tertiary healthcare centers across the country, which are not completely free from poor funding too. I remember a case during Covid19, a man in his 30’s was sick. He then visited a primary health center which was not properly equipped with necessary diagnostic equipment, just by mere observation, it was concluded that he had covid19. Covid19 drugs were prescribed with necessary isolation. However, he got worse by the day. He was then taken to a tertiary healthcare center and proper testing was conducted. He was covid19 negative but was already in bad condition with sepsis of unknown origin. He battled for his life through ICU and survived.  

Several deaths during covid19 in Nigeria were not from covid19 virus but were due to poor management of emergency cases of patients with several underlying sicknesses and diseases such as asthma, acute malaria, sepsis. These patients suffered rejection as they were carried from hospital to hospital until they die. I will mention a case. The case of young man of 25 years’ who was asthmatic in Mabushi, Abuja. During the pandemic, he came under attack while he was alone in his room. He managed to get to his compound gate and signaled the gateman to come take him to the nearest hospital. After some hesitation, the gateman called several cabs who refused to carry him due to the covid19 fear. Finally, a man agreed to take him to the hospital, and he got into the cab. The driver drove less than a hundred meter and stopped in fear, turned back and dropped him back at the gate where he was carried. A friend of his was alerted and he drove 15km to pick the sick man. Drove him to two different hospitals, he was rejected due to his poor state and on their way to the third hospital the man died.

Poor number of qualified medical personnel’s. Few number of qualified medical personnel’s have become a serious problem in Nigeria. According to data obtained from the General Medical Council of the United Kingdom, as quoted by the President, Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Dr Uche Ojin-mah, the total number of Nigeria-trained doctors who migrated to the UK as of September 2022 stood at 10,296. In 2022, the data revealed that over 1,107 Nigerian-trained doctors have been licensed to practice in UK alone. Several other countries like Saudi Arabia, Canada, United States, Qatar, Australia, etcetera have taken their shares of these great minds, who should be busy saving lives in our hospitals all around Nigeria. Brain drain in Nigeria has worsen our poor healthcare system. This problem demands a quick recovery approach by government and policy maker to formulate laws encouraging and enticing medical personnel’s in Nigeria using good remuneration.