Nigerian doctors oppose bill seeking to review qualifications of teaching hospital heads

Medical doctors under the aegis of the Medical and Dental Consultants’ Association of Nigeria on Thursday opposed a bill seeking to redefine the qualifications of heads of university teaching hospitals in Nigeria.

The bill seeks an Act to amend the University Teaching Hospitals (Reconstitution of Boards etc.) Act Cap U15 LFN 2004” and is being sponsored by the member of the National Assembly representing Ede North/Ede South/Egbedore/Ejigbo Federal Constituency of Osun State, Bamidele Salam.

The bill, among other things, seeks to (1) Change the nomenclature of the Head of Tertiary Health Institutions in Nigeria from Chief Medical Director; Redefine the qualification of the Head of Tertiary Hospitals; Provide a definite tenure of office for the Heads of Tertiary Hospitals; Include students of Health Sciences in the training programmes of Tertiary Hospitals; Include hospitals established post-enactment of the extant legal framework in the schedule and for other related matters and also restructure the composition of the Governing Boards of the Federal Government Tertiary Hospitals.

Nevertheless, MDCAN in a Thursday statement noted that passing the bill would portend risks to the running of tertiary health institutions in the country.

“This obnoxious Bill did not come to us as a surprise, as we know that the Bill could not have been from any other source apart from a group of workers within the Federal Tertiary Hospitals in the country who are hell-bent on destroying these Hospitals due their perennial, insatiable quest to take over the Federal Tertiary Hospitals from the back door. As much as they wish, we are convinced that the National Assembly, relying on global best practices, would not align with the forces of anarchy to destroy the country’s already beleaguered health sector.

“We would like to put it on record that passing this Bill portends serious present and future risks to the effective running of the Federal Tertiary Hospitals with consequential poor outcomes for the Nigerian patients who go to these hospitals with the hope of getting the best of care.

“A bit of the history of the Medical and Dental profession and how the allied health care professionals were established would explain the rationale behind the age-long tradition of having the Medical and Dental Professionals as the best fit for the management of our hospitals.

“The training of the Medical and Dental Professional gives him/her a holistic view of ALL aspects of patient management, as well as the administration of the hospital towards achieving that priority, which is the patient care.

The statement further stressed the importance of physician-led health institutions.

“The sponsor of this Bill may need to be reminded that running a tertiary hospital, anywhere in the world, has never been a popularity contest, just as no military establishment has ever left its commands (like the Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Air Staff, Chief of Naval Staff or Chief of Defence Staff) in the hands of non-combatant support staff because of their possible numerical advantage.

“Due to their holistic training and exposure, military personnel will always lead a military mission, just as the judiciary is always led by a trained lawyer and not any non-lawyer. At risk of repeating ourselves, the passage of this Bill by Nigeria’s House of Representatives remains a recipe for disaster in the running of our Federal Tertiary Hospitals.

“There are specific roles for every professional within the hospitals and the hospital administrators should be encouraged and empowered to ensure appropriate job descriptions for every professional that works within our Tertiary Hospitals and ensure that those job descriptions are strictly adhered to.

Based on what we know, we will blame ourselves if we stay by and watch the Nigerian health sector retrogress as a result of insatiable quests by an amorphous amalgam of power-seeking health care workers.

“There is a growing body of evidence, the world over, to show that Physician-led hospitals are better managed with measurable advancement in all aspects (patient care, infrastructure development and economy of the hospitals) compared to non-Physician-led hospitals. Furthermore, analyses from those studies show that hospital quality scores are at least 25% higher in physician-led hospitals than in non-Physician-led hospitals (Stoller et al 2016, Rotar 2016, Goodall 2011, Clay-Williams 2017, and Gupta 2019). As a matter of fact, the findings from these studies are within reach.

“Physicians, by virtue of their training, orientation, and experience, place their focus on the primary users of services in the hospital: the patient – whose care, as a matter of fact, is registered in the hospital in the Physician’s name.

“Finally, we encourage the National Assembly to throw out this obnoxious Bill and engage the critical stakeholders in instituting Bills that would bring quality, efficient, and affordable healthcare services to all Nigerians”, the Association noted.