The outpatient clinic is busy on a steamy Monday morning. The air is muggy and the throng restless. The ceiling fan’s whirling blades blast stiff, pregnant air into worried patients’ faces. The sweat on their foreheads flows down their faces like twin rivers, leaving pale streaks. A depressing atmosphere.
The General Outpatient Department welcomes you.
Today, however, we feel another sensation behind the melancholy. I can smell it. Fear of the unknown, uncertainty, and dread. Health care personnel and patients are tense and quickly provoked.
Chaos ensues as we try to organise the masses into a single file. A makeshift tap on a bucket is used to wash the hands of around 300 morning patients. The unclean water is collected in a basin and emptied into gutters.
Patients ignore repeated microphone instructions on seating and spacing. Our flaws are obvious in the sun.
Security guards and hand sanitisers are insufficient to control the crowd. Space is scarce and staffing is poor. The scene is ugly.
Panic is our emotion. Each morning, we pray for protection from the known and unknown. Doctors and nurses look panicked.
Will I contract COVID-19 today? How often do I handwash? Do I wear my mask properly? Am I endangering my family? Are these latex gloves suitable? Will I recover? Will I become a pandemic statistic?
The media bombards us with numbers of deaths daily. More than 10 Italian doctors died from the infection while working.
Because the country needs them, hundreds die daily providing crucial services. Yes, garbage men, supermarket cashiers, and healthcare professionals.
My first house officer payslip shocked me. N5,000 is the standard “Hazard Allowance” in Nigeria. Physicians, nurses, and lab workers receive N5000 for exposure to dangerous infections. This has happened for over 12 years!
When protesting this egregious unfairness, people are told, ‘You chose the profession, after all, you saw Sociology and walked away’, ‘This is the price you pay for being a doctor’, or my favourite, ‘Medicine is a sacrifice, your reward is in heaven’. Kill there by sacrifice! Do other doctors worldwide not practise medicine?
Why is their sacrifice superior to ours? Their government takes them more seriously—why? Will they not be rewarded in heaven? Will the Nigerian government protest at heaven’s gates, claiming they’ve received their allowances?
All jobs contain risks, depending on severity. Terrorists can kill soldiers, attorneys can be blackmailed or killed, and bankers may be robbed. We must believe the occupation is worthwhile.
We need to feel loved by our nation. We must feel valued and Nigerian lives matter. Then and only then can we see Wuhan, China, health workers’ passion and patriotism.
This pandemic has made Nigeria’s health personnel her greatest asset. From doctors and nurses who treat patients, laboratory staff who handle specimens, public health experts who control statistics and transmission, records staff who register patients and cleaners who mop the wards and wipe hospital surfaces. They’re unsung heroes.
While the pandemic continues, we do our best. We protect ourselves and assist each other. We smile to disguise our concerns and appear in control. We wear scrubs and masks.
When hospital medications and sanitisers run out, we donate. Insufficient hospital buckets prompt us to acquire our own.
A doctor in Kano bought 100 Ribavirin packs and gave them to health workers during the Lassa epidemic. We do our best with what we have.
We persevere till it’s all history.
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