CODEINE COUGH SYRUP WILL SOON BE ILLEGAL-PROF ONYEBUCHI

Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, an Orthopaedic Surgeon, is the Minister of Health and fellow of both the West African College of Surgeons and the International College of Surgeons spoke on some national issues in the health sector

There has been lot of raised issue on cough syrup containing codeine and a lot of people are concerned about its abuse especially by youths. Why has government not done anything about it?

This has been one source of abuse in the country. A lot of our youths, and even some adults, have been abusing it. I am told that it makes them high. That is why they are all buying all the cough syrups with codeine. Before the next two weeks, you will hear a pronouncement which will say clearly that those syrups with codeine will now be treated like other narcotic drugs, in which case, it will only be accessed the way narcotic drugs are accessed. This means that you can’t find them in any ordinary shops. It will be found in hospitals only.

A lot of issues have been raised about National Hospital and many other tertiary institutions. Accusations of negligence and such issues persist. Why do we have these complaints?

Let’s start from the beginning, is there any sector that we don’t have complaints about service delivery? I just want us to place everything in context. The media can come down and let’s develop a template on how we are going to score all the sectors in Nigeria. Believe me, I am not boasting, health will be one of the top five in terms of performance. Quote me any day. Look at the construction industry. How many buildings have collapsed. And you people in the media are not making noise over it, and people have died! I am not saying we are saints. I am saying that we have to look at it as a general problem in the economy. These people working in hospitals are our brothers and sisters. They come from the same family as ours. Like you rightly pointed out, our own is sensitive because we are on the final pathway between life and death. Why do I say it is the final pathway? Who takes the blame for a retired worker who should have enjoyed his pension but is not getting it? But while he is not enjoying his pension, he becomes diabetic. He becomes hypertensive. Finally, he develops stroke. The family took him late to the hospital and then he dies in there. They blame the doctors. But nobody remembers who did not pay the pension. That is where that man’s problem started from. What I am saying is that we have overemphasised hospitals.

Coming to National Hospital, Abuja, it has had problems. Let us put it in context. Journalists have not done what I call in-depth analysis of the National Hospital. That place did not start as National Hospital. Recall that during the Abacha years, his wife, as part of her family support programme, initiated that hospital and what she had in mind was that the hospital should be a small hospital of 200 beds to cater for women and children. And the government decided to build that hospital for women and children. At a particular point, government decided that we don’t have a tertiary hospital owned by the Federal Government in Abuja, and decided to convert it and called it a National Hospital, 250 beds with all the specialists. So, many times when you go there, there are no beds. Right now, we are building more wards. If you visit today, we are building more wards at the hospital. Let’s be patient because we want to increase it to at least 500, double the size of beds.

Only recently, we investigated a case of negligence. We went through the due process. It led to two consultants leaving the hospital. It led to almost five resident consultants leaving the hospital and it led to about three nurses leaving. Some of them have gone to court; so I cannot comment so much on it. But, it tells you that government is serious about discipline.

But again, people need to understand that they have their own constraints. You can also understand why people will refuse to buy health insurance and expect that when they have problems, they will not pay. There is no way this can work. The subvention government is giving them is not enough to provide total free health care for people. They have to, based on what we approve for them, charge fees. And if people refuse to pay, that hospital will totally collapse.

source:punch