The Medical profession is one that is highly respected across the globe. This is because of the rigorous training of medical school as well as the care driven self less service Medical Doctors are expected to render. One of the key aspects of being a Medical Doctor is call duty which involves being available to render sometimes almost non-stop services for a specific period of time.
This period can range from a few hours to almost 24 hours depending on factors such as the sufficient or insufficient number of medical doctors. The call can be a strenuous period especially when there are insufficient number of Medical personnel. Doctors are indeed trained to be life savers. Unfortunately some individuals within the Medical community are doing a great disservice to the noble Profession.
In Nigeria, where I reside some have been accused of negligence while on duty ranging from administration of drug over dose, prescribing drugs inappropriately or making mistakes while carrying out surgical procedures. More often than not cases involving these misdeeds go unreported or uninvestigated. Sometimes when complaints are made they are either swept under the carpet by the medical authorities in charge or the investigations drag on for years without any end or closure in sight for the victims of such mistakes or misconducts of the erring medical personnel.
It so happened that a few days ago while commuting home, a medical doctor joined the vehicle I boarded. A few minutes after he boarded he was "on call" or should I rather say on a call which he put on loudspeaker probably because the earpiece of his device was faulty. The content of his conversation with anothe medical doctor left me numb and pained. It so happened that his colleague had called to inform him of a potential issue he might due to a recently performed surgical procedure.
The colleague on the other end of the call was complaining bitterly that one of the medical support staff likely to be a nurse had drawn his attention that a couple of the medical instruments used during the surgery were unaccounted for. To place this in perspective after a surgical procedure is performed, the practice is to ensure that all tools used such as needles, scissors,scapels, gauze and the likes are accounted for to avoid a scenario where any of such items is mistakenly left behind in the patient who had undergone the procedure. In developing countries such as mine, the dominant procedure is to do a manual count while in more advanced countries technology such as RFID tagging makes this process far more efficient with less risk of anything being forgotten.
Our doctor on call frowned at the fact that the support staff had delayed informing the surgeon about the missing items while downplaying the issue at the same time because of the number of the items that the support staff claimed to be unaccounted for. He went on to tell his colleague that since the patient had already been moved to the ward there was nothing much that he could do but that the patient may need to be reopened up if she started to complain of anything unusual. He explained to his colleague that sometimes adverse reactions to such items may come quickly or may take months or even years.
What bothered me was the fact that he did not advise his colleague to immediately report the incident of the alleged unaccounted items to the appropriate persons in the hospital just in case the items were indeed missing such that necessary action in the right direction could be taken if the patient eventually complains of anything unusual. Alas if complications do arise and turn fatal for the patient , the issue of the allegedly missing tools may never be revisited especially if the surgeon or support staff involved are not pricked by their conscience to speak up knowing fully well the consequences of doing so.
Who knows how many of such similar conversations concerning cases of mistakes or negligence on the part of some doctors are buried with the passing of patients. The stories of mistakes or negligence are often discussed in hush tones because there is a perceived notion that the body responsible for taking necessary disciplinary action against erring doctors covers up the tracks for them especially where such accused are highly placed or have powerful "connections" in the medical community.
Until a time when people see prompt investigations as well as appropriate disciplinary measures being meted out to doctors who are found to be guilty of negligence, the notion of erring doctors being "untouchable" will continue to linger in the minds of the public in developing countries such as mine.
Danke
Merci
Gracias
ขอบคุณ
ধন্যবাদ
Спасибо
for reading.
