If what we hear from the authorities of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria [MDCN] is to be believed then those whose battered bodies need immediate repairs in the hospitals are in mortal danger of being sent out yonder. This is not an attempt at scaremongering, it is deadly serious.

The other day the Acting Registrar of the MDCN, Dr Abdulmumini Ibrahim was quoted copiously bad mouthing new doctors. Speaking at a one day stakeholders workshop on medical education with the theme: Qualitative undergraduate medical education: Matters Arising, Ibrahim noted that most hospitals no longer give internship privileges to new doctors because they are always found to be incompetent. He also noted that new doctors also lacked courage, of low morale and display unethical behavior.

Now many people reading this would ask, so what is new? If teaching hospitals that receive referred cases forget cotton wool and knives in patients after operations and only discover this when the patients' conditions worsen instead of improving and healing, what do you expect from new doctors who are largely neo-phytes in the profession, newly sent down from the universities after completing the usually grueling course of study? Cases of forgotten cotton wool, scarpels or any such surgical instruments are regularly found in the innards of patients. The other day the University College Hospital [UCH] in Ibadan, had to award an infant patient scholarship for her education and free treatment for the duration of her life because some silly negligence on the part of UCH's staff resulted into the amputation of the infant's arm. Now, the UCH is still one of the best in the land and indeed in sub-sahara African. If it can happen there, pray where then can it not happened? Similar mistakes have caused patients to drag some hospitals to the court for negligence, a particular case in point was the baby that contracted HIV at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital at Idi Araba, Lagos. Both parents tested negative when tested.

All this is just to support Dr Abdulmumini's view that all is not well in our hospitals. If now the quality of graduate doctors is so bad that they cannot even measure blood pressure then it is about time I threw overboard my highfalutin high-mindedness about sticking with Nigerian doctors whenever I come down with some ailments, as I normally do. I should now be emulating the likes of the President who flies out to some exquisite and exotic hospitals in Dubai, Kargistan or some place else, as long as it is not in Nigeria, to repair or replace jaded body parts. Yes, of course finding the money would be difficult, but trust me I would try. But not worry I am hale and hearty, at least as healthy as someone of my age can be!

Jokes apart, it is time for an emergency to be declared in the nation's health sector, plagued for many years by shortage of equipment, disillusioned and badly trained staff angered by poor pay, whose attitude to patients is now veering into outright callousness. The other day the Chief Medical Officer of the National Hospital, Abuja announced that he is overseeing a hospital with no personnel having the necessary expertise to under take complicated cases. He said this at the height of public anxiety about the health of President Umar Yar'adua, perhaps as away to draw attention to the abject neglect obtaining in his hospital. It is not unlikely that similar situation obtain in other tertiary hospitals, though, we recall that the previous administration publicized the equipment it supplied to these hospitals with fanfare. Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo made a meal of the event then, by checking himself into the National Hospital for a physical examination and gleefully declared himself to de kampe. The emergency so declared would have to pertain itself to a number of issues. The least of which is badly trained new doctors. The quest should seek to answer the question where have all the medical experts trained with tax payers money, gone? What should be done to stop the flight of doctors from Nigeria? Two major reasons why doctors run away are poor remuneration and inadequate equipment. Considering the critical nature of the sector, perhaps it is time we singled it out for special consideration in budgetary allocation to motivate doctors and other health workers to stay on their jobs. Right now, the confidence in the sector is waning, as amply demonstrated by the trooping of those who can afford it, out of the country to seek good health in other countries. Our president is the number one candidate whose sickness has exposed the utter lack of confidence and the inadequacy in our health care delivery system, with his constant trips abroad to seek health.

It used to be said that Nigeria has a corps of well trained medical doctors. Well, the jury is out saying this is no longer so from among medical doctors themselves, but most especially from scores of Nigerians running away to other climes to undergo procedures as simple as having babies, removing a bad tooth or replacing a slipped disk to more serious ones like replacing organs. The vote of no confidence is near total. These days the places they go include, wait for it, Ghana-to repair bad and defective hearts. What have we done to this land? Confidence must be brought back into our system and this should start with the health sector through creating the necessary wherewithal, including well remunerated manpower and adequate facilities to enable the sick access health in Nigeria.