The future of healthcare in Africa will centre on the holistic understanding of the human being, the essential care in terms of what we eat daily and how we live our lives, the capacity for us to sustain that in terms of prevention rather than disease focus only and, last but not least, the existence of compassion necessary to maintain our humanity along the way.
It is not difficult to see the usual assumption that Africa is a constant and persistent failure. People hide behind skepticism about data and the level of testing. However, public testing is based on symptoms in most parts, if not all over the world. This is certainly true in the U.K. and in Nigeria. In my experience, with respect to these two countries, the ease of access and cost of testing in Nigeria is better.
For example, in relation to blood pressure, the kind of medicines that I have gotten in the NHS have raised deep suspicions in my mind about the system’s understanding and capacity to look after me. For example, the prescription of ACE inhibitors that have widely been shown to have little efficacy with Africans is characteristic of my treatment in the NHS.
Once could be tempted to think that the medical interventions in that case happened because of some kind of medical interest. No. It happened because the assumption of the pain threshold of a black woman obscured the capacity of the people who were caring for my wife to ensure that she was properly cared for. For our second child who was born in the U.K., my wife went through two days of labour until, after some pressure, the doctor decided that they would go for a caesarian section.
As a result of that experience, I became very skeptical about staying in Abuja for any medical care. I was very, very skeptical even though I had the best medical insurance available to boot. However, the COVID-19 lockdown found me alone in Abuja. I can say, thankfully, that the unrelenting effect of sleep apnea meant that I had no choice but to try to find good care in Abuja. I managed to find one in the middle of a pandemic. A young doctor, Dr.
I thought we would go back in the next day, but they said they needed me to rest and needed to observe me before they took me back in for the procedure. At the core of all this was a palpable level of compassion. It is this compassion that is critical in the care of humans, especially when you are not only focused on the disease but on the entire wellbeing and humanity of the patient. To cut a long story short, we went in for the operation to remove the polyps on the Friday.
Health Health Latest News, Health Health Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: LeadershipNGA - 🏆 4. / 77 Read more »