The curious case of medical negligence in Nigeria

Abstract

The preponderance of medical errors is not aimed at individual irresponsibility or the actions of a particular group of people. Dominantly, it is rather a collective dysfunction. Nigeria’s healthcare systems have suffered criticisms borne out of the fact that most healthcare systems experience great deal of dearth in terms of availability of man power and infrastructure despite available medication. The statistics of the patients who have been in the receiving end of the problem are mostly of the lower class in rural communities who are in the most. The upper class is also affected but often remedies are sought by seeking treatment elsewhere. As a result most of the incidences are not recorded or filed as lawsuit. Ushie, Salami, Jegede & Oyetunde (2013) recently revealed from their study which examined patients’ knowledge and perceived reactions to medical errors from 269 in-patients conducted among health caregivers in the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Nigeria, show that  majority (64.5%) of respondents reported annoyance and disappointment with medical errors. Severity of error was (88.5%) and the perception of negligence mediated intention to litigate. Voluntary disclosure significantly reduced patients’ intention to litigate caregivers Private and public hospitals must be effectively monitored to the effect that medical certifying bodies must provide or show that the recipient of such certification have proven or demonstrated integrity, competence, and professionalism in the medical profession. Effective monitoring must be in place to routinely and consistently observe medical inventories of public and private hospitals. Human right advocacy groups should be more proactive in this case, in helping patients with the litigation process which is usually expensive, time and resource consuming.