Patrick Okigbo
4 December 2008
Lagos — Patrick Okigbo writes on the life and times of Dr. Enyi Okereke, a medical practitioner in diaspora who died trying to provide free medical services to the poor in Enugu State. Unfortunately, he died in a tertiary health institution that lacked equipment and drugs to save his life
Tribute
Dr. Enyi Okereke had no real reason to be in Nigeria doing what he was doing when the cold hands of death squeezed life out of him. He could have stayed back in his villa in the United States to enjoy the results of his hard work. He could have been in the warm embrace of his loving wife who now has to journey through life without her soul mate.
His children and grandchild could have surrounded him, as they joyfully expect the newest addition to the family. But he chose, instead, to be in Nigeria doing what he loved best - caring for the needy in our society. Dr. Enyi Okereke, physician par excellence, died in Enugu on November 11, 2008 of what is purported to be a heart attack.
Enyi, as he is fondly called was one of Nigeria's top physicians in the United States. He was an associate professor of orthopaedics at the University of Pennsylvania. He was also Chief of Foot and Ankle Services at the University of Pennsylvania Health System in Philadelphia. Enyi won many prestigious awards including the 2002 Jesse T. Nicholson Teaching Award from the department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Pennsylvania.
He was named one of the "Best Docs" in 2004 and in 2005 was named one of Philadelphia's "Top Docs". Enyi held many leadership positions in many professional societies including serving as the 2004 secretary and 2005 program chair for the Philadelphia Orthopaedic Society. He served as the chairman of the New Jersey Chapter of the Association of Nigerian Physicians in America (ANPA). He was recently elected National Treasurer of ANPA.
ANPA represents the professional, political and social interests of the 4,000 plus physicians, dentists and allied health professionals of Nigerian birth, ethnicity or empathy in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. ANPA's vision is a healthier Nigeria in a healthier world and it seeks to achieve its vision through medical missions to provide free healthcare to the medically indigent in rural parts of Nigeria.
ANPA's vision was Enyi's vision. As has become routine for him, Enyi was in Nigeria with a team of US-based physicians to conduct free medical examinations and train student doctors in our universities. Enyi and his team were in a teaching hospital in Enugu imparting knowledge to medical students when he died.
The autopsy results are yet to be released; however, it is believed that Enyi suffered a heart attack. This is hard to believe because Enyi was very health-conscious. At 54 years, he still ran four miles every morning. He ate healthy, preferring salads to red meat and alcohol. It is difficult for anyone who knew Enyi to believe that a heart-attack would be the way he would exit this stage.
But that is beside the point. The point is that the heart attack happened in a teaching hospital in Nigeria, where he was surrounded by some of the best physicians in the world, but they could not save him. Why? The hospital didn't have the basic equipment to provide alternative support for the heart while arrangements where being made for proper care. The hospital did not have the drugs needed to stabilise Enyi while arrangements where being made to fly him out of the country.
Both the Nigerian and Diaspora physicians looked on helplessly as life gradually drained from the body of an excellent gentleman. Enyi, a man with a passion to help the medically indignant became one himself because he found himself in a country that has squandered $350 billion in oil revenue but does not have the drugs and equipment found in every ambulance in the United States. Giant of Africa!
However, this story is not really about Enyi. Neither is it about my friend, a radio presenter in Enugu, who lost his wife and child a few weeks ago at childbirth. It is about the millions of Nigerians who die every year in this country for totally preventable reasons. According to the World Health Organisation (2004), of two million registered deaths in Nigeria, 1.43 million were as a result of communicable, maternal, prenatal, and nutritional conditions, 0.44 million from non-communicable diseases (such as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular, congenital anomalies amongst others), and 0.13 million from injuries (including road accidents and other forms of violence).
We, as a nation, do not value our people. We do not value the lives of our people. We believe that people are dispensable. If not, why is it that we have not been able to fix the healthcare sector in Nigeria? Why do we delight in eating our own?
Scary Diagnosis
Enyi is no longer with us because of the challenges with Nigeria's healthcare system. A review of these challenges can be quite daunting and with varied ramifications in terms of human capital, infrastructure, funding model, and policy. These challenges are compounded by other socio-economic challenges that are common across all sectors of the economy. A comprehensive and integrated healthcare strategy is needed, as none of these challenges should be solved in isolation. The government bureaucracy, as usual, has proved that it cannot solve these problems. It is time we turned to the markets to provide answers.
Human Capital
According to the World Health Organisation Country Cooperation Strategy for Nigeria covering the period from 2002 to 2007, Nigeria's key health indicators have either stagnated or worsened. Life expectancy dropped from 1991 to 2000 by 10 per cent (48.2 years) for females and by 11 per cent (46.8 years) for males. This deplorable trend is consistent for infant mortality rate, under-five death rate, maternal mortality rate amongst others. The report attributes the trend to shortage of skilled medical personnel at the primary healthcare level. For instance, the report indicated that only four out of every ten primary health facilities provide antenatal and delivery services or have a midwife on location.
Nigeria is one of the major health staff exporting countries in Africa. According to 2008 research by C.J. Uneke published in The Nigeria Health Sector and Human Resource Challenges, about 20,000 health professionals are estimated to emigrate (legally) from Africa every year. Using 2002 data, about 21 per cent of this number comes from Nigeria. The data was not corrected for population size. However, the story is still poignant. Nigeria suffers severe brain drain as its medical professionals leave for greener pastures in foreign lands. Nigerian health professionals earn less than 25 per cent of what their contemporaries make in the developed world. Standards in our hospitals are so low that any medical professional desiring quality experience could be seduced by the facilities in the developed world.
Infrastructure
According to the latest available data from the Federal Ministry of Health (1999), there are only 18,258 registered primary healthcare facilities, 3,275 secondary healthcare facilities, and 29 tertiary facilities shared by 140 million Nigerians (less the rich who can fly abroad for their own services). Although this data is ten years old, one does not expect any significant improvement in the numbers. It is important to note that the fact that a healthcare facility physically exists in a community does not mean that they operate. Most of these facilities are poorly equipped, lack basic diagnostics equipment, skilled human resources, and are usually in deplorable sanitary conditions.
Financing Model
The financing model is in two broad ramifications; development and delivery of health services, and payment for healthcare services. The financial resources for the development and delivery of health services in Nigeria come from government budgetary allocations, contributions from multilateral agencies, and the private sector. The Nigerian government spends a disproportionately lower percentage of its expenditure on healthcare than most nations.
According to the 2005 World Health Organisation report, per capital government expenditure on health was $14 compared to $32 (Ghana) and $2,861 (USA). In the same period, total expenditure on health as a percentage of gross domestic product was 3.9 per cent compared to 6.5 per cent (Ghana), 15 per cent (USA). Furthermore, the total government expenditure on health as a percentage of total government expenditure in 2005 was 3.5 per cent compared to 6.9 per cent (Ghana), 18.7 per cent (USA).
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